Candy Mouth
by ackersexual
Summary: Mute!Levi. Eren had never expected someone to be worse at words than him, until he meets Levi, a charming little mute man who wears a different colored scarf for every day of the week. Being the owner of an independent shop, Eren can't deny help when it shows up on his doorstep.
1. Baby Face Bastard

Life in the small Miami town was not pleasant for poor Eren Jaeger. As if the actual city wasn't awful enough, what with the scalding heat, weekly floods and monthly hurricanes, his social life resembled something between a cracked skipping stone and a flaming pile of garbage. It didn't make sense for those two to go together, but that's what Eren would tell anyone who asked, because he was able to skip the stone, to get it going, but probably into said flaming garbage pile. Something would probably blow up in his face. The stone was actually pure, hardened oil.

Eren wholeheartedly hated his life, but in the ironic Chainsmokers kind of way. It's not like he'd kill himself, but if he tripped and landed into traffic he wouldn't exactly be in a rush to get up, either.

All of the friends he'd made during his childhood years and high school were gone now. Hated him, probably, and it was all thanks to how poorly he started carrying himself. A shit attitude and anger issues could only get a person so far in life before they came to a screeching halt, and a screeching halt Eren did come to.

Even his dearest friend Armin had been ignoring him, and that kid never got mad. It hurt his feelings, yeah, but it was also hurting his shop. The one he was currently sitting inside, staring up at the ceiling counting cracks like a monkey on a mission. All that was missing was the drool down his cheek.

It was just him now in the shop. His mother had left it to him after her accident, and he was in charge of hiring people now, so he hired Armin. That was going well, until the two of them got into a spat and the kid stopped showing up for work.

The job was shit, and the pay sucked―even when he paid himself it sucked―but if he decided to stop running it and go to college like he wanted to, his father would have it demolished and built into another dumbass corner gas station.

His mother had built this shop with her own two hands, and Eren wasn't going to let his piece of shit father hurt her again.

And with that responsibility, it was safe to say he would never have a relationship ever in his life. People had come and gone, and even some idiots came through the store and asked him on a date _("To like, Waffle House?" "What the fuck?" "So is that a no?")_ but between keeping the shop open and caring for his disabled mother, he didn't have time for that.

Sure, he'd love one, but shit happened and that's just how it was.

So here he sat in the dusty, overcrowded (with boxes, not customers, but oh how a boy can dream) wood and stone antique shop The Smiling Titan. For a minute, just one or two, he contemplates cleaning up the place. It would probably put him in a better mood, he thinks, as the heel of his sneaker knocks over the half eaten Chinese food that's been sitting under his desk for a week. Yeah, it just might, but was he going to? Short answer: nah.

Browsing through his Facebook dash with his thumbnail between his teeth was arguably more important right now. Even more important than the couple breezing through the shop, giggling at the collection of pins or some other garbage he had brought from the attic. _("Oh, wow, buy 5 pins and get 5 more free!")_

 _Please buy them_ , Eren telepathically pleads, _I have so many pins. Why do I have so many pins? Where did they come from? Mom… please. Stop buying pins._

They didn't buy anything in the end, and Eren shook a metaphorical fist as they left. In reality he grunted at their departure and finally loudly clears the frog in his throat. Because, it would have been, you know, weird to do that with just them in the shop and the last thing he needs is to scare customers off.

Today wasn't any different than any other day though. Mostly just tourists looking for a place to mooch a hot second of AC and pretending they really care about the mass collection of sunglasses that Eren found abandoned on the beach and brought in to cell. Summer was just around the corner, and that meant all of the idiots who left their sunglasses back in Oregon would be flocking for his $1 deal.

Jade eyes lazily glance to the clock underneath the desk. It reads a quarter past noon and he sighs at that, as if he had anything else to do today. It's the perfect time to close his eyes, though, so he kicks his feet up on the desk and tries to shut his eyes.

No telling how long he sat like that, but it didn't feel long before there was an obnoxious tapping from the other side of the counter. He thought nothing of it. Probably a blind customer tapping their way around the store, or maybe the AC was leaking again.

When that dumbass noise didn't quit though he growled irately in the back of his throat.

And it kept going.

When he finally lifts his head up and opens his eyes he's sent jumping out of his own skin by the eerie, beady charcoal eyes, inky black hair and ghostly pale guy glaring at him. Eren holds a hand over his heart as he realizes it's just a snowbird or some goth kid trying to annoy him.

"Fuck me, you scared the fuck outta me," he groans and pulls himself out of his rolling chair. There's a pen in the guys hand that Eren glances at, before jade meets silver. The stranger taps the pen against the desk again and slides something across the desk.

A torn out piece of paper that reads, 'Are you hiring?'

Eren looks back up. The man is watching him expectantly, he thinks. He's kind of stoic and hard to read, but his head tilts ever so slightly that gives Eren the inkling idea he's waiting for an answer.

Still, Eren furrows his brows and purses his lips. Who the hell applies for a shithole in the wall kind of place like this? With how pale this guy is, he assumes he's from up north and in desperate need of a summer job while on vacation.

So Eren voices that with, "You're fuckin' me, right? Why the hell do you wanna work here?"

The guy rolls his eyes and Eren scowls.

Stop that, asshole, I wasn't even being rude yet.

The ravenet digs in his tight jeans for another crumpled up piece of paper. Now it's when Eren realizes this guy is decked out in skinny jeans and a white turtleneck, all flattered to the very end with a thick black scarf. A junkie? Maybe.

By the time curious jade stops looking this guy up and down, he holds up another piece of paper with the same neat and cursive handwriting as before.

'No one else will hire me.'

"Impressive, you've pissed off every shop in Miami?" Eren queries, the man rolls his eyes again before Eren decides instead of knocking this guys eyes out he'll resume being an asshole, "Okay, tell me, why won't anyone hire such a chatterbox like you?"

The kid says nothing but returns to scribbling. It's kind of satisfying to watch, and it almost distracts Eren from the curious wonder of why this guy isn't just talking to him. It works in the end, because he's more so focused on his perfectly manicured hands twirling letters all pretty and fancy. For once he's too distracted to open his big ass mouth.

When the paper is held up again, there's two words, both underlined twice.

'I'm mute.'

The show was over. Eren was bored.

"I'm sure lots of places will hire you," Eren argues. "Try the library or something."

Quickly, he pulls more paper, and scratches something down before flashing it irritably.

'I have tried.'

Jeez, and he was joking. This guy seemed desperate.

The brunet sighs and runs a frustrated hand through his bangs. With one hand on his hip now he thinks about it. The place does need to be cleaned, and now that Armin wasn't working and his sister was off to college, he really didn't have time to stay on top of everything.

On the other hand, it is a family business, and his mother probably wouldn't like him dragging in some stray.

While his eyes had been upcast in thought, the ravenet had been writing, and he snaps his fingers to get Eren's attention. There's another note in his face.

'Listen, I could live off of social security checks my whole life, but I don't want to. I'm just asking for a part time job. Anything to get me off of my ass. Just because I'm mute doesn't mean I can't work.'

Yeah, Eren could relate to that. Poor guy.

"Alright, tell you what," he sighs and takes the paper and pen from his hands. "I'm fuckin' exhausted. Go get me a coffee from Sasha's―you know where that is, right?" He nods. "Mkay, bring it back and we'll talk about it."

The guy was running out of room to write on his little page, but underneath the order that Eren had wrote, he jots down a quick, 'Thank you.' and 'What's your name? I'm Levi.'

"Levi," the brunet reads aloud with a grin. "I'm Eren."

'Nice to meet you,' he writes, 'I'll be right back.'

* * *

The bell rings as he leaves the shop feeling hopeful in this job, which was probably a dumb thing to do. This wasn't his first stop, and it wasn't his last, so he would have to hurry up and find this damn Sasha's before the shops started closing. It was enough to put a bit of speed in his step as he glared at his phone and followed the GPS.

It took about 10 minutes for him to speed walk to the place, and by the time he's there he's sweating his ass off. No, he doesn't miss those strange looks either, and some teenage girl mutter to her friend, _"Why the hell is he dressed like that? I would **die** in this heat!"_

 _Then die_ , Levi glares at her as he walks to the front door. People really didn't mind their own business anymore, and with that thought he feels for the knot of his scarf and reassures himself it's still tied tight around his throat.

It was unusual for Levi to be seen out of his apartment since the accident. The only friend he had was Hanji Zoe, and they were an eccentric pain in the ass, but they were one of the few people who stuck around.

Sure, he could speak and make friends, but it felt like someone had force fed him gasoline and a lit match if he spoke for too long or too loud. His vocal chords were damaged, and he didn't have any intention of pushing his luck for them to heal sooner or later.

There was sign language, and he did know it, but no one else seemed to.

Levi chews on his bottom lip as he makes his way inside and into the crowded shop. There's a girl at the counter with long brunette hair pulled into a ponytail, glazed in a sweat but still energetic enough to slap her hands on the counter and excitedly wail, "Welcome to Sasha's! That's me! Lemme know what you need when you're ready!"

First mute, now deaf. Levi groans at the sharp voice that goes straight to his temples.

Some bald kid murmurs, "Sasha, volume! We talked about this."

"Right, right, sorry!"

A voice to surprise the Devil himself and she's working in a coffee shop.

Making his way to the counter he fishes the paper out of his pocket and has it prepared in his fist. Once she greets him, he unfolds it and hands it to her, and she reads it over before once again screeching the order over her shoulder.

"Sash! I'm literally right here!"

"Sorry!" She whispers before looking back at Levi. "Anything else for you?"

The ravenet skims the whiteboard above the bar with handwritten coffee and tea descriptions. They all sound too sugary for his taste, so he settles on a black tea. Holding up seven fingers, she glances at the board before nodding.

"Any sugar, sugar?" She grins.

Levi shakes his head.

"Alright, and what size?"

What, what now? Shit, he hadn't prepared for that question. He forms the letter 'm' in sign language with his hand, but she only purses her lips and furrows her brows. Okay, that's not working. Damn the public education system.

He feels his pants pocket and pulls out a sheet of paper, but realizes dreadfully Eren never gave him his pen back. Fuck.

"Here, sweetie."

She's offering him a pen. A sweet, beautiful pen. He mouths 'thank you' before jotting down 'medium' quickly and handing it over, suddenly overwhelmed with relief that the situation didn't get any more stressful than that.

"Alright, got it!"

He hands her his debit card and scowls at the price. That's going to put a dent on his bank account. Seriously―$9 for a cup of coffee and a tea? What the hell kind of capitalist shit was this?

"Connie! You got the coffee?!"

This poor Connie kid looked fed up as he stood right in front of her with two cups in his hands. Silently, he hands them to Levi with a polite smile and an exasperated, "Thank you for swingin' by Sasha's."

"Here!" Sasha interrupts with a slip of paper in his face. He's obviously got no hands for it, so she ridiculously leans over the counter and wedges it into his pants pocket with her tongue stuck out the whole time. "This is my number! Next time just text me when you're coming by and what you want!"

That made up for the fact she just fingered his jeans and jabbed the side of his dick with a rolled up slip of paper, so he offers a slight smile and nod.

The walk back seems quicker than the walk to the coffee shop. The heat is somehow less bothersome and the people around him aren't tight walking on his nerves anymore. A gust of wind even blesses him and he turns his nose up at it in an attempt to keep his bangs from whipping him in the eyes.

It could be his imagination, but maybe the universe was having a bit of mercy on him. That's what he told himself when he approached The Smiling Titan again.

"Oh," the brunet perks his chin off of the counter and his eyes go comically wide. "You actually came back. Damn, here I was starting to get the idea that you were pranking my dumbass."

He shakes his head, ignoring the comment for the sake of seeming somewhat professional. He sets Eren's coffee down in front of him and the brunet takes it before throwing himself back into his seat and slumping low. After taking a long sip he sighs happily and nods. It's like a completely different person that gets up with a clap and motions for Levi to follow him.

Once they're side by side the ravenet sighs. Eren was taller than him. Everyone was taller than him.

In a sulking suit, Levi follows Eren through the displays cluttered in junk. Things from clothes, to furniture, to little knick knacks and appliances. Levi even sees a kettle that he kind of likes on their walk to what Levi now realizes is becoming the back of the store.

Eren halts only to fish a set of keys out of his pocket and unlock the door that reads "employees only," which seems kind of ironic since Eren had been the only one Levi has seen for the past few days he's scoped out the place.

It's the… _breakroom_ ―Levi uses this word lightly―because it looks like it was built by David Fincher. Tyler Durden definitely just got done beating the shit out of himself in here.

A round table sat in the middle of the shacky room, decorated with only the finest brass lamp, dented and cracked up the neck and missing the shade. Right next to it was an ashtray that was overflowing with cigarette butts and the ashes were smeared over the table and on the tacky green carpet. It also looks like the smoker just gave up on using it because there were numerous black dots on the table where cigarettes had just been put out.

Papers were strewn over the floors that Levi tried not to step on as Eren guided him to the only chair at the table. Even the lights were flickering. How the hell could anyone live like this?

"Ignore the mess," the brunet says.

Levi wheezes a bit to stop the intense urge to laugh and raises his brows. _Ignore the mess._ He really wants to laugh at that. _Was there supposed to be a spot in this room that wasn't a mess?_

"Anyway, sit down."

Eren decides to stand. Levi realizes why once he sits down and sees the other chair in four pieces and leaning in the corner of the toom.

"This isn't my mess, if you're wondering."

Yeah, he was wondering. Was it obvious with the way Levi had made himself small and scowled at every string of dust that flew in his face? _Was it, Eren? You absolutely disgusting pig, fucks sake._

"I thought it would be a good idea to hire some old man with lung cancer. Turns out he, you know, didn't care," he explains as if Levi had asked.

Still, he hums at that, and Eren looks at him like he suddenly has three heads.

Levi raises his brows again. _Yes, I can make guttural noises._

Even though this room definitely didn't show it, Levi had trusted Eren just enough to pull out his phone instead of another sheet of paper. At least, he's sure Eren won't steal his phone, because yes, it has happened before.

Levi types, 'Does he still work here?'

"Ha! Fuck no, I fired his dumbass a month ago," he says. Was that really appropriate to say about a dying man? "No one uses this room much, so I haven't gotten around to cleaning his shit up."

'So others work here?'

"Uh, well, yeah, sort of," Eren thinks about it for a minute and nasally inhales deeply before leaning against the wall with his ankles crossed. "Family and close friends. I never put them on a set schedule because I can handle most of the shit anyway, so…"

Jade eyes fall downcast as he drags on that 'so,' and finishes his sentence by sucking his teeth. If there is one thing Levi has picked up on with being mute, it's reading people well, and Eren wasn't telling him something.

For now, he'll assume Eren is embarrassed no one wants to work in his gross shop and he's the only worker. Levi looks back down at his phone to type.

Eren sips on his coffee before asking, "Did Sasha treat you well?"

God, he hates when people do that. It's like the equivalent of being talked over, and for a moment he looks up through his lashes and considers deleting the WIP message on his phone. Instead, he nods and goes back to typing.

'Is this supposed to be the interview?'

This makes Eren laugh.

"I have honestly never given an interview in my life," Eren confesses while rubbing the back of his neck. Suddenly he seems more sheepish than he did before. "I do need help around the shop though, but it's not like I was looking."

Levi says nothing, but waits as Eren bites the inside of his mouth, seemingly thinking something over.

"Well, Levi, are you any good at cleaning? Because, as you can see, this place needs cleaning."

God, Eren was fucking hilarious.

'I bet you my first paycheck I can have this entire place clean on my first day,' his phone says. Levi quickly adds to that, 'That is, if you hire me.'

"You haven't even been upstairs. You have no idea what kind of a mess this place is."

'Doesn't matter to me. I've only ever cleaned for a living; it's all that I'm good at. It doesn't require speaking.'

"Do you have a resume?"

'The last place I applied to took it,' he sighs as he remembers the libraries are closed now. 'I can have you another copy by tomorrow.'

"Alright," Eren hums. "Bring the resume tomorrow, then, and if it looks decent, consider it your first day of work. Have you ever used a register before?"

'No,' Levi is becoming so excited that it takes him three tries just to type without typos. 'This is my first job.'

"Jeez, have you got a serious criminal record or something? I doubt you'd get rejected so much for just being mute."

'I've only ever been arrested once,' Levi admits honestly. 'You can look at my record for that.'

"Print that out for me tomorrow, too, then."

'I will,' Levi types. He's got an urge to grin, but represses it, not wanting to get his hopes up anymore than he already has. For all he knows Eren may not like what he finds in that one case, or the brunet will change his mind by the time tomorrow comes. Anything could happen; or he could just simply get the job. Still, he worries. 'What time should I be here tomorrow?'

"Shop opens at 10 AM, so be here at 11," Eren informs. "I'll give you bonus points if you bring coffee again."

'I will also do that,' his lips twitch ever so slightly into a half smile. 'Anything else I should know?'

"Not now. Tomorrow I'll explain everything, and give you the grand tour of upstairs and storage," Eren grins, "Hope you're as cocky tomorrow as you are today."

Just as Levi is beginning to lift his phone again, the sound of a bell faintly rings from behind him, prompting both of them to look through the open door. A customer is at the register already, and Eren hurries out of the room without muttering a word, leaving Levi to release the grin he'd been holding back. Still, he stifles it, covering his face with his hands and scarf.

He puts his phone away as he gets up, scarf still covering the corner of his mouth, and waves goodbye as he passes Eren on his way to leave.

"See you tomorrow, Levi."

Eren has a Hollywood smile, holy shit. He wonders if it's just because there's a customer in front of him or if Eren was just excited someone finally wanted to clean his nasty ass shit up.

Levi simply nods in response before the door chimes in his departure. Pulling his phone out, he texts the only person he knows will be excited for him, and smiles as he does so.

[To] [Hanji]

I got a job at The Smiling Titan. The owner is kind of a dick, but I think it's for show.

[To] [Hanji]

Anyway, want to celebrate if you're not busy?

It doesn't even take them 5 minutes before they're blowing up his phone.

[From] [Hanji]

SERIOUSLY?

[From] [Hanji]

CONGRATULATIONS!

[From] [Hanji]

I'M NEVER TOO BUSY TO CELEBRATE!

[From] [Hanji]

I'M GETTING BEER AND PIZZA.

[From] [Hanji]

BE HOME IN 5.

Oddly enough, he feels giddier than usual, and with Hanji's attitude it's only adding more to this feeling. Not that it's a bad thing; it's been a while since he's felt this happy, and never did he ever think he'd be so excited to see his roommate.

They could celebrate this together; because they were the only one who stayed with him throughout this entire thing. Granted, he didn't know Hanji as long as he'd known Erwin and Petra; Hell, he's even known Farlan and Isabel longer, but Hanji has always had the most patience with him, and for that, he truly did love them.

Even if he wouldn't show it.

With the thought of Farlan and Isabel, he hesitates to send his next message, but does with a deep exhale.

[To] [Hanji]

Think I should invite Farlan and Izzy?

Hanji's reply takes a bit longer than usual, and Levi knows why.

[From] [Hanji]

Nah, let's have our own night, okay?

[From] [Hanji]

We'll tell them later.

Levi purses his lips, sighing as he stuffs his phone away. The only thing that could ruin this mood for him was the reminder that his friends had barely wanted anything to do with him. He can't say he blames them, but at the very least, what was so wrong with them being excited for them? Couldn't they take an hour out of their busy schedules for him?

Scowling, he begins his walk home, his excitement having died down, but still lingering.

"It's fine," he whispers ever so quietly, "I'm fine."


	2. Birdcage Blues

**Authors Note:**

A few of you asked me if Levi is mute selectively or from injury, and both answers are right. I'll get into that in the chapters, I don't want to spoil too much. c':

If you guys could all do me a favor, I have a new poll on my profile as to which fanfic you'd like to see revamped, and once I finish my current fics (or come close to) I'm planning to write the one that gets the most votes.

* * *

" _Shit_...," he murmurs quietly, extending his hand across the bed until he finds his phone; he only opens his left eye slightly to check the time, immediately irritated when it reads 10:34. He could have swore he set an alarm, but apparently his drunk self is more of an asshole than he thought. Sitting up slowly, he rubs at his eyes, a pulsation in his temples causing him to wince as he scoots to the edge of the bed.

When his fingers touch his throat he realizes soon that his scarf had been disposed of last night; thankfully it had only been Hanji here with him. As he stumbles out of bed hung over, he takes only a moment to overlook his reflection in the mirror above his dresser. It wasn't often he even saw himself without something covering his throat; and he takes a few seconds to prod at the twisted skin right above his collarbones.

It was a simple scar, nothing too disgusting about it; it could have been worse, granted, although it was all that anyone looked at whenever they spoke to him. At least when he'd worn scarves or turtle necks people could look him in the eye, after getting out a good laugh about why he's wearing such clothing while living in hell's waiting room—it's not like he wanted to wear a sweat collector around his neck all day and night.

 _Assholes_.

Even his new boss, Eren, was probably going to be the biggest dick of them all, but it's not like Levi could complain. It was the first job offering he's had since before the accident, and he wasn't going to piss it away just because the owner was a little prick—big prick; he was tall, Levi liked that, but with Eren, it was irritating. As if the kid didn't already have enough ego. He was probably some rich kid, cargo shorts and polo shirts while playing mini golf on his daddy's yacht.

Levi snorts at the imagery, it fits Eren so well.

Thinking of Eren reminds him he has 20 minutes to get ready and hurry his ass down to the shop. Stretching his arms over his head, he turns away from the mirror and drifts sleepily to the closet where he plucks a plain white t—shirt from it's hanger. He's not planning to dress fancy, and given the short amount of time he has to get ready, it's not like he has a choice. Checking his dresser, he pulls a pair of demin jeans that are ripped in the knees and shins. Shrugging at his selection, he grabs a pair of clean underwear before heading to the bathroom.

The house smells like shit; probably because Hanji had three party fouls last night, and Levi is sure he remembers her puking somewhere. Peeking his head into the living room, he's tempted to wake the woman up, who is sleeping—if you call it that—with half her body hanging off the sofa, and her neck bent at an uncomfortable angle on the arm.

Sighing nasally, he rolls his eyes, and continues with his original plan.

Shower, grab a snack from the fridge, get the copy of his background check, and get to work before he's late on his first fucking day. Within 10 minutes he has all of this done, dressed and hair still mildly wet. He ties a red scarf around his neck; nothing special, but it is thick, and Levi can already tell it's going to be in the hundreds today when he steps outside.

Slipping his phone into his back pocket, along with his history check, he begins his walk, blinded by the sun beating down overhead. He should have brought sunglasses, especially with this damn hangover, but he's sure by the time he's finally able to work he'll have forgotten about this miserable heat. It was supposed to be exciting like that, anyway; the first day of a job.

Even though Levi only had about 2 years worth of retail in high school, he was sure the job couldn't be that difficult.

He checks his phone when he comes around the block The Smiling Titan is located on; he's got only 4 minutes to spare and that's just enough to put a little more kick in his step. By the time he does make it to the shop, he's instantly relieved by the air conditioner whirring. The cool air hits him like a miracle from heaven, and he leans in the doorway for a moment to close his eyes and relish it.

"Welcome back," comes that familiar voice. Levi nods in response, and plucks the folded paper in his back pocket to hand it to Eren. The brunet hesitantly takes it, his emerald eyes are squinted the entire time. "You look like you're about to faint, maybe you should sit down first."

Levi shakes his head, and does the most unattractive thing a person could do; uses his scarf to wipe away the thin layer of sweat over the top of his lip and grimaces at his own hand when he wipes his forehead. When he looks up again, Eren looks equally as disgusted.

 _Smooth._

"Yeah, anyway," Eren says with furrowed brows, unfolding the papers. "Oh, this is your criminal record? It's shorter than I thought it'd be."

Only because he has one offense. Levi waits—impatiently, to his own surprise. His throat feels somewhat tight now that Eren's reading over the paper carefully. The raven didn't think he would be so precise about the details of the offense, but there he is, reading over the small font as well.

"Reckless driving, suspended license," Eren drones as he reads, pausing when he reads the next line. Levi can only assume Eren has spotted the check mark next to the 'deceased' box. Shamefully, he looks away, clenching at the loose end of his scarf that falls over his chest. Slowly, Eren breathes, " _Fuck_ , Levi."

Panicked, he pulls his phone out of his pocket, typing quicker than he ever has before flashing it to Eren.

 _'It wasn't my fault,'_ Levi holds his phone up until Eren seems to be done reading, then continues, _'That's what they said at least. The girl was mentally unstable. She was in a coma for months and I paid to keep her alive until her friends forced me to stop.'_

"I wasn't going to blame you," Eren rubs the back of his neck, and Levi flushes three colors brighter; out of embarrassment, shame and anger all boiling together. His eyes wander back to the sheet of paper. Eren's expression scrunches painfully as he asks, "It says you were injured, too. Is that why you're... you know... _mute_?"

 _'Yes,'_ Levi sighs as he types; it's not that the question bothers him, it's just Eren won't like the truth, no one does. _'And no. I don't want to talk about that.'_

"Yeah, yeah," Eren himself seems to be skittish, and his hands are shaking as he folds the paper back up. Could it be that he's actually nervous, too? That would surprise Levi, considering only one of them is the murderer here. Nevertheless, Eren brushes it off as best as physically possible and scans over the next sheet, which would be his resume. "I'm going to go scan these, just sit up here and keep an eye on the shop while I do that."

Levi hums in response, chewing on his bottom lip as he's left alone—well, to be fair, he can still see the head of chocolate hair in the back room, but it feels pretty lonely having artificial authority over an entire shop even for a few minutes. He eyes the two customers in the shop now; a woman by the sundresses, and a teenager digging through a bucket of pins.

He snorts to himself; what if someone began stealing something? Or a robbery?

 _What am I going to do? Scream?_

Probably should have thought about that before getting this deep into the job. Sighing, he slumps his shoulders, trying to ease the worry in the back of his mind that he won't get the job at all. With the look on Eren's face, it wouldn't surprise him, although he did seem to brush it off. Again, he laughs inwardly, knowing that a complete stranger could let it slide, and yet some of his closest friends couldn't even give him the time of day because of it.

Absently, he wanders to the desk in the front; supposedly if any customers came around he could already be there, but also because he had no idea what else to do with himself yet. Propping himself onto the desk, he stares down at his dangling legs and picks the dirt out of his nails, plays with the stray fabric on his scarf, plucks fabric out of his ripped jeans; anything to keep him from worrying.

"Alright," Levi hears Eren faintly from the other room, and looks up just in time to see the brunet getting up from the desk. He watches as Eren reads over the sheets of paper while walking towards him, and for a minute, just a minute, he almost looks like an official business man. Besides the tacky white washed jeans he's wearing and a disgusting looking army green sweater. A homeless businessman, sure, that works.

"Here's all of this back," Eren says, practically unreadable, and Levi is usually good at those things.

The ravenet takes the papers, folding them up as small as he possibly can, even if it's only to keep from making eye contact with the brunet standing hardly two feet away from him. By the time Levi does glance up, Eren has his phone in hand, and it's not till he hears a photo snap that he realizes what Eren was doing. Levi doesn't even have to pull his own phone out to type a message, because Eren can see the confused, slight scowl on Levi's face when he pulls his phone away.

 _Creepy._

"I needed a picture for your file," Eren goes back to his phone, taps a few things, and Levi can hear a machine whir in the other room, a copy machine or printer Levi assumes, and by the time he looks back to Eren he has a phone in his face. "Is this okay?"

So this is how people must feel when he talks to them.

His eyes focus on the picture, and there's nothing creepy about it. Levi had just looked up before the photo snapped, and his hands are between his legs, with one leg underneath the other. Thankfully the sweat and redness seem to have gone down, and there is nothing wrong with the photo. It is actually a good picture; he nods at Eren.

Levi begins to type on his own phone, _'Does this mean I got the job?'_

"Was there actually a doubt?" Eren shoves his phone into his pants pocket, a crooked smile on his face.

Levi can't help it; he tries so hard to hold it back, but a smile spreads that leaves him pursing his lips and looking in the other direction. If he knew Eren a little bit better, he would probably hug the brunet until he broke. Chest light with happiness, he peeks back at Eren, who is now equip with some dumb ass, slightly confused, but equally as pleased smile. Slowly, Levi types a message, and finds himself backspacing for the first time in a while as he tries to think of what the hell to say.

Finally, after three attempts, he settles with a simple, _'This means a lot to me. Thank you.'_

The look on Eren's face, it's indescribable, but he's no longer staring at the text, but looking at Levi, smile softened.

"How about we close shop and go get a coffee?" Eren sighs, joining Levi on the counter top.

 _'You can do that?'_

"Yeah?" Eren scoffs. "I run the shop alone, I have to take a break sometime."

Simply, Levi nods and waits as the brunet is flipping through his phone. The raven doesn't mean to be nosy, but he's got a habit of looking over people's shoulders that he can't break, and he watches hesitantly as Eren texts someone named 'Potato Girl' followed with the coffee Eren had given him yesterday. A dark mocha, with extra whipped cream, and an extra espresso shot; it was easy to remember, and Levi planned on doing so. He assumed the girl he was texting was Sasha.

"What do you want?" Emerald eyes never look up, as if he's expecting an answer. Halfway through that question, Eren must have mentally slapped himself, because he paused, before snorting and passing him the phone. "Just type it underneath mine."

Levi takes the phone, taking note of how many notifications were at the top of his phone. Most were from YouTube, one Messenger alert, and the rest were gaming apps it looked like. Pursing his lips, he glances back down to the text, and writes out the same as yesterday: _plain black tea, no sugar, medium._

Handing the phone back over, Eren nods at it before sending it.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Eren hops off first, and Levi follows in an excited suit.

It took about 20 minutes to get each customer out, even though there were only 4 of them, and Eren even let one of the girls go without paying for the three buttons she wanted to buy. Eren taught him how to ring up the third customer; Levi tried not to think too much about the brunet leaning a little too close, but after so long, it became futile. The way Eren kept pressing his chest to his back, grabbing things off of the counter just to show Levi how it was done; there were other ways to do it, yet Eren decided to do it with a smile and too close to his ear.

 _But, Eren isn't gay, right?_

Levi curses himself for still being unable to read Eren; he's too bland, it's like he doesn't want to stand out at all.

The customer is taken care of eventually, and Levi finds it easier—or it would have been if tall, dark and handsome wasn't grinding into him—but at least it's over with. He let's Eren take the register to close it down, and waits by the door while Eren grabs his laptop bag out of the back room and they make their way out of the shop after locking it up and flipping the _open_ sign to _closed_.

Levi takes the opportunity to pull his phone out and check his messages. Only a few; one from Hanji, two from his mom.

 **[From] [Hanji]**

 _So is the boss a prick like you said? How is your first day? Tell me these things!_

"I'm a prick?" Comes a snickering voice in his ear. He looks up, horrified to meet Eren's gaze.

Scoffing, Levi stops to text Hanji back, knowing Eren is looking over his shoulder. Once he's done typing it out, he glares at the brunet while he reads over the short text. It's a good opportunity to finally be able to get inside Eren's head, even if it is just for a little bit.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 _No, he's actually very cute._

To Levi's surprise, this makes Eren murmur a soft "oh," and begin walking slowly towards the coffee shop. Levi catches up quickly, even more shocked to see the brunet engulfed on his own phone, except a lovely shade of pink spread from behind his ears and to his cheeks. So he was a softy past that shitty attitude; that was interesting.

 _Day 1, flirted with my boss._

 _Great._

Levi inwardly groans at himself before checking his mother's text messages.

 **[From] [Mom]**

 _Hanji told me you got a job! Call me afterwards! Xoxo_

 **[From] [Mom]**

 _Sorry... text me afterwards._

Right, she was still getting used to it to; it's not like it had been that long since the accident, even if it was a little over two years, it took getting used to in ways that no one could imagine.

He disregards her message from now, and his phone entirely when he notices Eren has already put his away.

"So," Eren starts, staring at the ground before he looks down at Levi, "Can you actually talk?"

This, he furrows his brows at; it was a reoccurring question, and one usually asked when a person was becoming annoyed with him. That worried him, especially if it was his new boss on his first damn day of work. He could lie, and make Eren feel bad for asking, but he decides to be honest with a slight nod.

"Oh," the brunet seems to be covering his nervousness up with small smiles here and there. "I mean, do you mind me asking why you don't?"

Sighing, he pulls out his phone, typing out the message as their walk slows down so Levi can concentrate on both, _'Someone told me to shut up, so I did.'_

"Seriously?" His face sours.

 _'I'm dead serious.'_

"How long have you been keeping that up?"

 _'Almost two years now.'_

"All because someone told you to shut up?" Eren scoffs. Levi nods, but can't tell if Eren is impressed, or showing him contempt right now. "Who exactly told you?"

 _'No one important,'_ Levi tries to disregard, but that doesn't make sense, and it shows on Eren's face. _'It's not a story I want to get into.'_

"So is this connected to the crash?" Eren asks, and Levi sulks at his persistence.

Silver eyes look up just in time to see Sasha's shop, so he changes the subject.

 _'How is the coffee here?'_ He types. _'I only tried the tea.'_

"You—no! You didn't even try the tea!" Eren laughs as he splutters. "You left it on my desk for me to try, and realize how _disgusting_ it was, and throw it away."

He giggles—yes, _giggles_ , and he brings his hand to his mouth far too late to cover it up; Eren has already noticed with a somber gaze and a soft smile, and it drives Levi absolutely fucking insane, because no one has made him laugh like a schoolgirl in his life. When he can stifle it, he does, swallowing thickly and gets back to typing on his phone despite his burning face—he blames it on the heat, luckily they're waiting to cross the street to Sasha's now.

 _'I'll try it this time,'_ Levi types, and Eren rolls his eyes. _'Maybe I'll try your nasty coffee.'_

" _Mine_ is nasty?" Eren jeers. "Plain black tea, with no _sugar_? That's fuckin' _gross_ , Levi."

 _'It's just too delicious for your infant taste buds.'_ The street sign allows them to cross now. _'How old **are** you?'_

"My age has nothing to do with how disgusting your tea is," Eren jabs. "I'm 17, soon to be 18, thank you _very_ fucking much."

While Eren laughs, Levi stiffens at this information, and nearly stops in the middle of the road if it weren't for his common sense kicking in. Narrowing his eyes, he feels completely left behind as Eren steps into Sasha's.

"Welcome to— _Oh_! Eren!" The girl from before excitedly bounces up from behind the counter; a few customers stop talking at her booming voice, but resume when their eyes land on Eren, as if this is a regular thing. Before the brunet could get a word out, her jaw drops. "I should have known it was strange having the same order in two days!"

Levi follows Eren up to the counter, and she points to Levi, while her other hand rests on her cheek, her elbow resting on the counter.

"Who's ya' friend?" She asks sweetly. "I met him yesterday, ordered a dark mocha and black tea, what a coincidence, you ordered the same thing. I should have _known_!"

"This is actually my newest employee, _Levi_ ," Eren greets, "And yes, you should have, you're failing as a barista."

The ravenet waves in return to her wrinkled nose and grin, but rather looks to Eren afterwards in hopes the brunet will keep the conversation going. It's difficult to talk to three people at once, unless it's in a group chat, and he has neither of them on Facebook.

"I am, I'm sorry," she mock pouts, before turning her back to them for only half a minute, returning with two medium cups. "Also, hold the phone, new employee? What happened to Armin?"

"He quit, sort of," Eren takes his coffee, and hands Levi his tea. "More like stormed out."

"What?" Her jaw drops; even Levi's interest is peeked. "What the hell happened?"

"Nothing, nothing," Eren shakes his head, sipping his too hot coffee, which he expresses with a wince. "Just had a disagreement."

"Armin is an _angel_! How could you get him mad?"

"Long story, really, Sash." His brows furrow, and for a minute he almost looks guilty. "We're on break, though, so, we're gonna go sit down."

While Levi usually doesn't like being spoken for, he can't disagree that he'd like to sit down. He drowns out as they say there temporary goodbyes, and Sasha seems slightly persistent on wanting to know about this Armin kid. Levi looks over the shop however, noticing the antique feel is gives off; an old, waterdamaged boat hangs on the ceiling, wrapped in fish net. The tables are styled like the steering wheel of a ship, and the matte oak floors compliment the darkness of the blue wallpaper. Photos are decorating the entire shop, he notices, as he drifts away from the two and ventures to the side of the coffee bar he'd been earlier.

Sasha is in almost every photo, except a few, and he even finds Eren in a few pictures right away. The brunet seems younger, a little bit shorter, but still a teenager with mangy chocolate hair that falls more into his face than it does now. His eyes are closed, and he's wearing a pearly grin along with two other people; one small, blond, fragile boy with his hair back in a ponytail, with wide blue eyes hiding in an over sized blue cardigan; the other, a girl with short ebony hair to her shoulders, and narrow eyes with a faint smile.

Another photo with Eren is from a newspaper clipping, except he's with Sasha, and another kid who's lacking in the hair department. They're all posing calmly for the photo, arms wrapped around one another; lastly, one with a boy, with choppy blond and brunet hair. Their things scattered on one of the tables with them both sipping on their coffee.

Levi notices the one particular thing; their feet are linked together under the table.

 _Ah, he's in the closet._

That makes sense. Either that, or he was just ashamed about how ugly this fucking kid was.

He shakes his head, disregarding that thought as soon as it comes, wondering momentarily where the bitterness of it came from.

"God, those are so old," Eren says from behind him, taking him off guard for a moment. Levi begins to chuckle, but notices how grim Eren's expression really is, and chews his bottom lip instead. The brunet must have noticed, "Let's go sit down."

Levi follows him to the nearest seat; the place isn't too busy. Sasha is dealing with a couple now, and only two other people are in here, both on their laptops.

Pulling out his phone, Levi types, _'I have a question.'_

"I might have an answer," Eren smiles, popping the lid off of his coffee to blow the steam.

 _'Why are you'_ **Backspace**. _' **How** are you running a business at such a young age?'_

"My mom gave it to me," Eren answers plainly. "She got sick last year, and she's bedridden, so I offered to run it."

 _'I see,'_ Levi hums to himself. _'What is she sick with?'_

"Nothing dramatic, or important. She pulled her back out after some asshole almost hit her while she was walking. The headlight clipped her side; if it'd been any worse it probably would have torn her in half," Eren laughs, and Levi slightly enjoys the dark humor. "But she's okay. She's in a wheelchair for now, she swings by sometimes."

 _'Well, shit, that's fucked up,'_ Levi winces.

"What about your mom? I saw you texting her earlier."

 _'Nosy,'_ he types. _'My mom works for the government, does some kind of CIA paperwork bullshit.'_

"Your mom sounds fucking bad ass?" Eren snorts.

 _'It comes with the classic paranoia,'_ Levi chuckles. _'While your mom told you not to talk to strangers, my mom was telling me to watch out for gangs.'_

Eren laughs shortly, resting his head on his head as he reads the text.

"Ah, I almost forgot," Eren pulls his own phone back out, "I wanted to give you my number."

Levi nods, searching for his contacts, and selects to make a new one. He waits while Eren reads out his number, and saves Eren's contact under his name before sending him a simple text that says, _'Hi.'_

Eren smiles, and Levi isn't sure why, until he gets a returning text, saying, _'hello!'_

 _Cute._

"Is it easier for you to text things to me?" Eren asks, "Instead of just showing me your phone."

 _'Not really,'_ Levi types. _'Sometimes the messages won't send or send too late.'_

"Ah, I can see that." The brunet hums, switching his phone off. Their conversation dies down for a moment, until Eren stops mid sip of his coffee, and exclaims with the most feign seriousness Levi has seen a person muster, "Mm! I meant to ask; am I still a prick?"

Chuckling, Levi shakes his head, ignoring the embarrassing heat in his chest.

"Oh, damn," Eren sarcastically coos. "I don't want to burst any bubbles, making you think I'm a nice guy and all."

Levi simply rolls his eyes; any conversation after that is mostly about Hanji, and he explains to Eren how she's his roommate, a very annoying one at that, but still his best friend, while Eren tells him stories about this Armin and Mikasa, who he puts a face to when he informs Levi that those two are the ones in the photo with him. Anything after that point was mindless garbage about ongoing events, ice breakers, so Levi would call it, and he usually hated small talk, but Eren kept it relatively interesting. After a cup of coffee Eren seemed to get some energy back, although too much of a good thing could be bad; he couldn't get Eren to shut up.

Even on the walk back to the store the brunet wouldn't shut his mouth about college, the shop and annoying customers.

 _'Wait,'_ Levi stops him, by now they've reached the shop, and Eren is just unlocking it again. _'You're already in college?'_

"No," Eren scoffs, "I'd like to be, but I have no fuckin' clue what I want to do."

 _'Shouldn't you be in high school still?'_

"I graduated already," Eren explains as they step into the shop, both of them sighing in relief of the cool air inside. "Mom wouldn't give me the shop until after I graduated."

The raven is slightly impressed that a little shit like him could have already graduated before turning 18; he must have paid his way through one of his classes or something, because Eren doesn't seem like the sharpest tool in the shed through Levi's eyes. He decides not to pry anymore than he has, because he doesn't want Eren returning the gesture.

After 2 pm rolls around, the shop is busy again; or at least as busy as a shop like this could get. A few customers here and there, and Levi has the register worked out already until it comes to deals or such, which he texts Eren to come help him. Other than that, it's a very slow and boring job, and Levi repeatedly tries to begin cleaning upstairs like Eren offered, but every time Levi tries to ask what Eren needs him to do, the brunet replies, _"Keep me company."_

It's a sad response, but Levi does so, luxuriated in the quietness that he usually wouldn't get at home with Hanji.

"Maybe tomorrow I'll let you clean," with his eyes focused on his phone, Eren finally murmurs after hours have passed, and with a smile, he adds "I wouldn't want you to quit on your first day."

The raven rolls his eyes, smiling only when Eren goes back to his phone. The thought does occur to him though, he said one of his other employees stormed out, and Sasha said the kid was a nice one. It can't be helped that he's curious about that, and how Eren will begin to treat him after they've gotten used to one another. An attitude problem Levi could see—but could it really get so out of hand to make someone quit?

Shaking his head, he sighs as he browses his phone over for the millionth time. It's best not to worry about it until he knows for sure what the inside of Eren's head is like.


	3. Green With Envy

**Authors Note:**

I don't know why but I always see Eren wearing those edgy print t-shirts and it makes me laugh, which is equally as sad because that's all I wear. Also the rolled upankles are a trend in Italy _I don't know if it's lame forgive me_

Anyway, fun fact! This entire story was inspired by the scene in The Professional where they play the "guess who" game and dress up. Imagining Eren as Mathlida and Levi as Leon never fails to amuse the shit out of me.

*This chapter has been split up into two parts. I felt like it was getting too long. ; ;

* * *

A scarf with the swirling colors of peach and cream wrapped around Levi's neck today, and underneath the bulky sweater he'd stripped off was a loose fitted light heather grey long sleeved shirt. Eren noted how endearing Levi looked today when the raven was seated at the register, and the teen had come up behind him, marking the freckles Levi had on his shoulder blade with the tip of his finger, murmuring cockily into his ear, "You look nice." While it had sent chills down Levi's spine, and a little extra thrill elsewhere, it was an odd thing fro Eren to do.

That hadn't been all; it seemed the brunet was acting extra... _strange_ , today. Not that it was different from any other day, he was always off in his own way, but it almost seemed like every time he began speaking, he lost track of his words, or he blinked a little bit too hard when making eye contact. Even after slipping on his glasses this still happened, if not worse.

He could be over thinking it, but despite this Eren did look a little more put together today. Instead of looking like he'd just rolled out of a dumpster or fell off of daddy's yacht, he wore a clean—to Levi's surprise—plain white t-shirt with a black Japanese logo over it. Using the little Japanese his mother taught him, Levi wasn't too positive, but he was sure the shirt just said some dumb shit like "don't touch me, I'm Internet famous" with dark skinny jeans, rolled up at the ankles.

Levi couldn't deny the brunet did look nice, and that was as far as that thought was going. For now, he would glance out of the corner of his eye and keep looking away every time Eren made a movement that even remotely looked like he was going to catch Levi staring.

Finally, after two hours into the distracting behavior, Levi questioned it with a simple text: _'Are you okay?'_

"Yeah!" Almost too chipper, his voice cracks before he winces and cocks his head with a slight smile. "Does something seem wrong?"

 _'Kind of,'_ leaning over the counter, Levi shows his phone to the brunet sitting behind it. There are quite a few customers in the store now, so Levi tries not to hit any nerves as he resumes, _'You just seem airy today.'_

"Oh," his voice softens and his brows wrinkle. Shrugging, he sighs, and leans back in the chair, his eyes darting to the door when a customer enters. He welcomes them quickly with a fake smile before meeting Levi's eyes again. "I have a suit for two of my friends, and they're stopping by soon. I guess it's distracted me."

 _'Anyone I would know?'_

"Ah, no," he cranes his neck, rubbing the spot where his tendon connects to his shoulder. "Just some high school friends of mine."

 _'Alright.'_

Levi shrugs, not caring to peruse the conversation any further with the weak responses he was getting. Time would tell, he assumed, and left it at that when Eren gave him a somber smile and a job to do; an easy one, for now, was to clean the back room. With a garbage can it might have been easier, but Levi found himself taking shopping bags of crumbled papers and cigarette butts back and forth to the dumpster out back. If Eren owned a single cleaning product the job might have not ended up taking Levi two hours to clean such a small room; alas water only smears ash, and towels aren't the best at picking up the muddy material.

At the very least, they did have a makeshift break room by the end of the day, and Eren was able to unpack his laptop and a mobile printer from his belongings.

Levi made a mental note to pick up some Febreeze later; the room still stifled like wet dog and a campfire.

The brunet wasn't able to help out much given he had to watch over the shop—though Levi did find it amusing when a little old lady needed help finding a new pair of glasses after having Eren assist her on the prices for the duration of her shopping trip. Eren didn't seem to mind much, surprisingly he was kind to her, he never showed a sign of annoyance. Not even when Levi was taking a water break at the counter did Eren mutter a bad word about his customers; he just plopped right back down and resumed looking over his phone.

So he wasn't a complete asshole.

There were two more hours of Levi's day, and four more to Eren's, which meant who ever Eren was expecting needed to show up soon, because Levi was oddly curious what had the brunet staring at the front door all day, and especially what made Eren dress so nice, although Levi was sure he was still thinking too hard about it. His life was just boring. Any time a sliver of drama came, Levi was almost instantly glued.

Little conversation came from Eren, and after a while it became irritating to even try, so Levi kept to himself for another hour. He found a duster—for sale. Which he promptly ripped the tag off and got to work, dusting away the thick layers of grime built up over merchandise and shelves in the back. 30 minutes into it, he had his very first interaction with a customer, that went pleasantly well, and the man didn't give him any hassle for not speaking; simply he just showed him where they kept the sunglasses and nodded in response to being thanked.

It was after taking care of the customer that the door jingled, and the clunk of Eren's phone hitting the floor, followed by an exclaimed curse; this got Levi's attention.

Separating from his work, he stayed in the back of the shop, but watched when the two figures walked in; two men, about Eren's age and height. One with freckles, a lanky but thick frame and curly dark hair. The other was one Levi had seen before, the blond kid in the photo with Eren at Sasha's shop. This is when it all made sense, so Levi assumed, until he saw that the two guys were hand in hand.

Levi snorts, shaking his head at the brunet's obvious affliction. If Levi could see it from the other side of the shop, he wondered what it looked like up close.

Now that his questions had answers, he offered Eren a "shit out of luck" shrug when their eyes met and drifted from the main room to grab another water from the mildew and piss scented break room. He stayed in the room this time, assuming it better that he stays out of any quarrels Eren has with his ex-boyfriend, and now it becomes so obvious why the brunet was so upset when looking at the photos.

He'd just uncapped his water and put it to his lips when the brunet came rushing in, speaking a mile a minute even though Levi couldn't understand a single word for the life of him. After the door slammed shut, and his water unpleasantly shoved out of his hands and onto the floor, Eren sighed, heavily, right into his face. A disgusted scowl set Levi's expression at the lack of personal space, and with his back to the wall, Eren finally began talking.

"Okay, this is going to sound fucking _bullshit_ _crazy!_ " Eren motions his hands above his head before dragging them down his face, extremely exaggerated. Suddenly he became a lot less attractive than before with his eyelids and mouth drooping with his fingers.

Cringing, Levi takes one step back, the only one he can take back before he's out of room, and nods slowly, waiting for Eren's continuation.

"Do me a favor, _one_ fucking solid, _please_ , Levi," Eren says slowly and hushed, his hands shaped like he's praying. He inhales deep, before exhaling until he's out of breath, and his eyes snap open as he sucks in another breath, "Please, for like 5 minutes, pretend to be my boyfriend."

Emerald eyes blink several times at the floor before they finally flicker to meet Levi's dead eyed stare and curled lip.

"I'll give you a raise," the brunet says quickly, before furrowing his brows. "No, wait, no I won't. I'll give you a one time bonus instead."

Pulling his phone from his pocket slowly, Levi finds amusement in Eren's little anxious dance.

At least he knows for certain that Eren is gay.

 _'No,'_ Levi types. _'Whatever beef you have with your boyfriends is not my problem.'_

"He's not my boyfriend, neither of them are," Eren scoffs, "But one of them _is_ my ex, and I am not about to go down the _"just try Grindr"_ path with Marco right now."

 _'That sounds **so** sad,'_ Levi's chin wrinkles as he feigns his sympathy with a pouted lip.

"Levi, please, for fucks sake," he whines. "I will never ask another favor from you again. I know it's fucking weird, _I'm sorry_ , but _please_!"

 _'You've got to explain this to me first,'_ he shakes his head as he types.

"I _promise_ I will after they leave," grabbing hold of Levi's wrists, the ravenet had no way to use his phone and stutters quietly as Eren begins dragging him out of the room with a rushed, "I promise I'll explain but I'm not taking no for an answer. Beat me up later, I don't care. Just pretend to be happy right now, okay? Okay!"

Fighting back isn't doing much good as Levi groans and stutters a few little _no's_ here and there that falls on completely deaf ears. He tries putting all his weight down like a child or twisting out of Eren's grip to no avail; and like that Eren spins on his heels to swing the door open, and without much choice Eren slips his sweaty hand into Levi's, forcing the raven back to his feet. As he makes eye contact with the couple across the room, he wonders if the internal screaming is visible on his face as Eren death grips his only way of communicating and drags him back into the room. The brunet is wearing that cheesy, broad smile, while silver eyes flicker from one face to the other.

"This is Levi," Eren breathes, obviously out of breath from their little tussle.

He lifts his free hand to wave quietly, uncomfortable with the sweat mustache and sore wrists Eren has given him.

"Ahw, you two make such a cute couple," coos the freckled one before he extends his hand. "My name is Marco! It's nice to meet'cha Levi!"

Thankfully this gives Levi a reason to break away from Eren, and he takes Marco's gentle hand in a short shake and nod. The nameless blond one however still remains quiet with arms crossed and beady beige eyes stare daggers back at Levi. He takes the moment to wipe Eren's sweat off of his hands onto his jeans, and call it ballsy, but Levi extends his hand first towards Eren's ex.

A whole minute of staring goes by with the four of them in complete silence, before the blond scoffs quietly and clamps his large hand down on Levi's.

"Jean." He says simply.

It doesn't take much for Levi to come to the reasoning as to why they broke up. With Eren simmering quietly behind him, and Marco still beaming innocently, Levi takes his hand back.

"I'm really happy you finally met someone," resumes Marco.

"Mm, me too," comes an all too fake tone from Eren. Emerald meets silver momentarily, and Levi musters a weak smile that looks more like a scowl than anything.

"Anyway, the suit?" Jean interrupts.

"Oh, yeah, I kept it on display," Eren motions for them to follow him, and Levi remains behind. "Levi, watch the store!"

That goes without much choice; they're already disappearing into the crowd of customers and clothes racks. It doesn't take too long for them to return, but Levi does have to check two customers out in the time, and when they do return it's when he's in the middle of an older woman buying half, if not all, the damn fine China that Eren had on stock. It doesn't take so much to ring it up, but to bag it all individually and stuff them is time consuming. His eyes are occupied on the three, all talking over a fine, clean and ironed black suit with golden embroidery.

Jean reaches over Levi once to grab a pen, and signs the check right beside him, almost as if he meant to show off. The numbers on the check read $3,200. Rather than impressed, Levi is more dumbfounded anyone would spend so much money on one thing. Snorting audibly, he resumes the order without paying any further mind to any of them, and completes her order by the time Eren is ecstatic over receiving said check.

As their leaving the store, Marco is the only one to call over his shoulder, "Bye Eren! Bye Levi!"

He holds one hand up to wave, while putting away the woman's money with the other.

It stresses him out faintly, but he's thankful when he's complete with her order, all boxed up and Eren is assisting her with taking it out to her car.

He takes the short amount of time to breath, and pulls his phone out when Eren comes back for the final time; he has an hour left of his shift, making it 6 PM when he gets off, and two texts from his mother confirming dinner tonight.

Neverminding his mother for now, he types a message when Eren plops down behind him.

 _'Jean seems lovely. I wonder why you two split.'_

"I know right?" Eren snorts, sighing as he rests his head onto the back of the chair. Levi turns his back to the rest of the store, and props himself up on the counter to face Eren.

 _'Care to explain why we're dating now?'_

"We're _not_ dating," Eren clarifies, rolling his eyes. He admits with a smirk, "Do you know how many times Jean has tried to make me jealous? Now I've got someone who looks borderline model material who he _thinks_ I'm dating, maybe the tables will finally turn."

Eren says this so smug and freely, it takes Levi back.

 _'So,'_ Levi watches his cursor blinking on his phone, waiting for his next typed word. Coming up short, he sighs irately to himself, still feeling a bit tight in the chest from Eren's blunt comment. _'You just wanted to make your ex-boyfriend jealous? Why?'_

"No," Eren sighs. "I wanted him to back off."

 _'Can't you just tell him that?'_ He types.

"You think I haven't tried that?" Voice gone a bit sour, Eren seems a bit offended. "I tried everything. I just don't want Marco to know..."

 _'Don't want him to know what?'_

Eren stares at the message blankly for what feels like an entire minute; Levi's arm is starting to get sore from holding his phone so still. Eventually, he shakes his head, and his eyes dart to the floor. "Nothing. I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

 _'Okay,'_ Levi types quickly.

The shop falls quiet between the two of them. Customers are chatting quietly, besides an irritating child that's crying in it's carrier. The sun is beginning to go down, illuminating an orange glow through the large bay window in front. It's not until now that Levi realizes neither of them have really taken a break today, mostly due to Eren's shitty behavior. Lifting his phone again, he types slowly.

 _'Close the store in an hour,'_ it says. _'My mom is expecting a guest with me tonight.'_

That wasn't a complete lie. He was considering bringing Hanji, but she had canceled on him.

"That's imposing." Eren furrows his brows.

 _'Wow, big word for you,'_ Levi snorts, and Eren rests his foot on the counter top between Levi's legs, making a loud thump to state the obvious where his boot _almost_ collided. Narrowing his eyes, the ravenet returns to his phone. _'My friend canceled. I need a guest.'_

"Can't you take someone else?"

 _'What are you doing tonight that's so important?'_ He tsks. _'Besides, you owe me.'_

A new face coming meant that his mom could stop hounding him about getting out more and making new friends, and on the plus side it would prove that Levi was working again; not that he wanted her off of his back, but having her worry less about him would make him feel a little less guilty every time he accidentally forgets to text her once a day.

With a sigh, Eren gets up and murmurs, "Fine, but I hope your mom cooks good."

And so Eren delivered the message to the customers that they were closing in 30 minutes; this meant there was a clutter of everyone trying to check out at once. It was chaotic for a moment, but with the two of them helping one another to get through a total of 12 customers they were done in about 40 minutes, give or take, which gave them enough daylight left to clean up the store, shut the registers down and lock the store up.

It was nearly 8 PM when Levi sent his mom a confirmation text that he was on the way.

Living in the city made commute a hell of a lot easier for Levi, especially since he's vowed to never get inside of a car against unless his life relied on it. With the lack of parking lots, and spots in general, that meant it was going to be walking or the underground subway if he needed to get to the next city over. He still didn't like getting into the subway, but since his mother lives on the other side of town, he's got no other choice in the matter.

Eren was fine with this information, so they began walking to the station, the streets only illuminated by the backed up traffic and dim street lights now that the sun had gone down. It was colder at night, and Levi's thick sweater had made a return while Eren practically radiated heat from a mile away. Levi tried not to be too obvious about it, but walking with their arms brushing gave him a bit more warmth every so often.

When they had finally made it to the subway and boarded, Levi thought it was weird that Eren sat in front of him, rather than beside him, yet said nothing about it, assuming it was something to do with how closeted he really was, or maybe he was still upset about Jean. Shrugging it off mentally, they only made eye contact before the subway started to move, and up until the end of the ride nothing more was said, they didn't look at one another.

Surely a warm meal would make Eren feel better, Levi thought, as they walked the long stretch of roads until they were in the neighborhood, and before they knew it they were standing on front of a tall oak door surrounded by stone walls, sitting pretty in the middle of the work of his mother's green thumb.

Levi turned the knob, but the door was locked.

He rang the doorbell instead and checked his phone. The last message he got from his mother was about an hour ago.

Who came to the door was not who he was expecting, but it wasn't ruled as a complete bad thing either. Yet his heart jolted when his Uncle swung the door open, both of their eyes going wide at seeing one another in so long. His beard had grown mangy, and his hair was untrimmed and covered both of his ears, underneath a dirty old hat. To Levi's further surprise he was dressed more or less nice. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. A button up black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and three buttons undone, but clean none the less.

"Well, you just going to stand there and gawk or are you comin' the fuck in?" Kenny exclaims, joking, Levi hopes, as he tugs on Eren's wrist for him to follow. Just as Levi's foot hits the carpet, he's pulled into an unwanted and bone crushing bear hug. For a moment he's even lifted off of his feet while his uncle made those disgusting noises that relatives do when they haven't seen you in years.

When his feet are steady on the ground again, he takes a step back, trying to smile ever so slightly.

Then, it happened, the look; Kenny's face fell, and he sighed deeply.

"Oh, you're still Helen fuckin' Keller, right?" His grave voice murmurs, and he rolls his eyes as he steps past the two of them to shut the door rather angrily. "Your ma's in the kitchen."

With that, Kenny waltzes off, leaving Levi and Eren in the doorway. The raven gives him a slight apologetic glance, before motioning for Eren to remove his shoes, which they both did before heading through the living room and into the kitchen. Kenny was already at the table, a Stella in one hand and his cigarette balanced on the window sill, while Levi found his mother at the stove, where she dropped her oven mitts and exclaimed excitedly.

"Oh, welcome home," her accent is thick, unlike Kenny's, even though they're siblings; it never made sense to Levi. Pulling him into a gentle hug, she notices Eren, who must feel extremely out of place right now. Tucking her silky, rib length hair behind her ear, her lazy eyes look Eren up and down, while holding that gentle smile unaltered. "Who is this? A new friend?"

Levi nods, unsure of how to introduce him.

"Oh, my name is Eren," the brunet's smile is more like one he'd give to a customer, but he extends his hand nevertheless, and shakes Kuchel's hand gently. "Levi and I work together."

Confused, Levi furrows his brows, almost pulling his phone out to correct Eren that he is indeed Levi's boss.

"Don't touch me... I am Internet famous?" She laughs into her hand, and it takes everyone a minute to understand she's reading Eren's shirt. "Oh, I like that."

"Oh!" Eren exclaims, this time a genuine smile comes with laughter. "You can read Japanese? Levi, why didn't you tell me? Now I'm especially excited for dinner!"

Is this what kissing ass was? Levi snorts, shaking his head as his mother waves them off, informing them, "Dinner won't be done for another 30 minutes; Eren, make yourself at home."

While Levi was thankful to get out of the gaze of his uncle, he was curious why Kenny had come all the way from California and back to Miami. However, he said nothing, and guided Eren back to his old room, strange as it felt, considering even Levi hadn't been in there for years; if anything he would help his mother cook, or watch TV in the living room, but Kenny changed his comfortability.

Down the short hallway, Levi takes Eren upstairs, and the second door on the right is Levi's room.

It's nothing like most people had in high school; Levi had always been minimalistic. There were posters on the walls, but in thin black frames, and mostly from classic movies; The Professional seemed to be one Eren knew, as he pointed it out with a boring, "Oh, that's a good movie!" before tracing his eyes around the rest of the room. A large white bookshelf was full from left to right, even some books were stacked on top of one another. On the top shelf however were Levi's old sketchbooks and journals, and he tensed up when Eren plucked one out.

"You know, if you don't use this stuff anymore, I would always buy it off of you," Eren smiles, flipping the first page open. It's a sketch of a bruised and beaten man that Levi had drawn and written his journal entry around the sketch. Luckily, Levi had written it in either French, or Japanese, and there was no way for Eren to read it, although he asks anyway, "What does this say?"

Levi shrugs, sitting on the edge of his bed. He wasn't going to dare translate anything that he'd written in high school; it wasn't a good time for him.

"Mm, well, I mean it," Eren resumes, shutting the book and replacing it. Shoving his hands in his pocket, he skims the rest of the room as if he's just looking for something to make an offer on. "People love old, aesthetic things."

Pulling out his phone, Levi types, _'I'll keep it in mind.'_

Levi had never been a sentimental guy; the only memories he had of his past were the newspaper articles of the girl he'd accidentally killed in his dresser drawer, hidden away from everyone and forgotten. That hadn't stopped him from leaving behind a few photos of his old friends in his room though, and Eren notices these, which Levi would rather over the gruesome clippings underneath the photos Eren was looking at now.

Three pictures were in small frames on the top of his dresser; one of him, Isabel and Farlan all sitting around a hookah at one of their small parties. Beer bottles surrounded all of them, and a pool table was in the background that Hanji and Erwin had been playing at. Izzy and Farlan were smiling a drunken, pearly smile at the camera, with the hookah hose in Levi's hand, his lips still around the pipe but eyes focused on the camera. He had no idea who took that picture anymore; probably one of Izzy's shitty boyfriends.

The other photo was Farlan and Levi at the lake, both floating in tubes. It was a nice day, everyone had gone, but Hanji and Isabel had stayed on shore to sunbathe. He's certain that one of the girls had taken the photo.

And the last one, was Levi and Erwin at prom; they hadn't ever dated, but the blond was a good enough friend not to let Levi miss it, even though it was a boring ass prom. The after party of that event is what made Levi regret coming out a little less. The two of them were both dressed nice, hair slicked back and a bright blue logo said in large, lame font "prom."

Not much had changed about Levi since those pictures were taken, except he'd grown an inch and cut his hair.

Eren only hums at each picture, pointing out exactly what Levi had thought, "You haven't changed."

 _'Apart from losing my'_ **Backspace.** _'Thanks.'_

"Was this your boyfriend?" Eren asks. Levi knew which picture he was referring to without even having to look.

 _'No,'_ he types. _'Just an old friend.'_

"Ohh," Eren sings, smiling a shitty grin, as if he didn't believe Levi. Seemingly done with observing Levi's knick knacks, he plops himself down on Levi's old twin sized bed, and sighs. "You have a nice place. Your mom is really nice."

 _'You haven't seen her when she's mad,'_ Levi snorts as he holds the phone up.

"I'll bet she's not half as bad as my mom," Eren bellows when Levi's brows raise doubtfully. "One time I told her I wanted to join the military, because my dad was in it, makes sense, right? Well, she wasn't having it. Mikasa snitched on me, and my mom screamed at me for days. She grounded me for an entire year and _still_ hasn't let it go."

 _'Sounds like your dumb ass deserved it,'_ the raven shrugs. _'I doubt you'd survive in the military.'_

"Excuse me?" Eren feigns offense, holding a hand over his heart before he shrugs, a smile creeping up on his face. "You're probably right."

 _'Why is your dad in the military?'_ He asks. So the rich daddy figure was something Levi guessed right.

"He's a medic... something about science, too. He doesn't talk about it much," Eren explains, and Levi hums in acknowledgement. "Well, he's never home to talk about it, so, I mean... I wouldn't know."

 _'I'm sorry,'_ Levi types sincerely with furrowed brows. _'He's stationed?'_

"No," Eren laughs, shaking his head. "He walked out on me and my mom to peruse his career; said we were holding him down."

Well now Levi felt like a raging asshole. It didn't help any that Eren was fine with blabbing it out so carefree; he'd rather the brunet had snapped at him for invading his privacy; then again, seeing how Eren had made himself at home in his room, Eren didn't seem to know anything about privacy.

"What about you?" Eren asks. "Is that your dad down there?"

 _'Hell no,'_ Levi types quickly. _'That's my drunk Uncle.'_

"Oh," Eren chuckles, "I guess every family has that creepy, alcoholic uncle," he resumes, and Levi agrees with a scoff. "So, where is your dad?"

 _'I never met him,'_ Levi thinks about deleting this, but holds it up anyway with a sigh. _'My mother doesn't even know who my father is.'_

"Shit, I'm... really sorry," the brunet frowns and tucks his hands between his legs. He opens his mouth repeatedly, and Levi stops typing for a moment to listen, but nothing more ever comes out. Biting his lip, Eren leans his head against the wall and sighs, "Now I feel like an asshole."

 _'Don't,'_ Levi could laugh. _'It's fine. Seriously. I don't care. I'm 25 years old. I have better things to worry about.'_

"Still...," the teen sighs and Levi gives him a cocked head, dead eyes look, as if to encourage Eren to drop it. Holding his hands up, Eren mutters, "Okay, okay."

 _'Come on,'_ he types. _'It's been 30 minutes.'_


	4. Summer Boys

**Authors Note:**

I know everyone is questioning why Eren is such an asshole (so much so I've gotten an anon on Tumblr asking me to "tone it down") but I made it really clear in the first chapter, and have been trying to make it clear that Eren isn't purposely a dick, more so he's _awkward_. I explained it more in the chapter, but I'm just letting you all know not to worry, Eren isn't actually a piece of shit or anything.

*This chapter was getting too long too. Instead of breaking it up I just cut some needless details out, so if some parts seem choppy, that's why.

I am excited for the mental breakdown someone will have next chapter. uwu

* * *

Just on cue for their coming down the stairs, Levi's mother was already at the end of the staircase ready to call them down. She greeted them again sweetly, warning Levi in Japanese that Kenny has had one few too many, and to be careful. This earned Levi a dumbfounded look from the brunet, but he said nothing of it as the three of them returned back to the kitchen and sat themselves at the table, with Kenny at the far end, and Eren and Levi beside one another, his mother sat across from him.

Dinner was already set; a large bowl of miso soup, served with a cut block of tofu and seaweed on the side, along with tsukemono, which Levi was never a fan of, and he wrinkled his nose at the dish but didn't dare to deny it. Rice and salmon were also on separate plates, all looking delicious, and Eren dumbfounded when Levi's mother said a short prayer, followed by Kenny and Levi's nod.

When everyone else began eating, so did Eren.

Before he got indulged in his meal, Levi made sure Eren knew how to use chop sticks, and could have laughed at the brunet's poor attempt in picking them up. Kuchel watched with a somber smile as Levi got up and stood behind Eren, helping him position the sticks between the right fingers and where to hold his thumb.

"I'm sorry," came a sheepish squeak from a red faced brunet. "I don't... I promise I'm not trying to be rude."

"It's okay," Kuchel covers her hand to giggle. "Levi, I think we still have the chop sticks you use to use in the kitchen drawer."

When Levi got up to fumble around the silverware, Eren didn't know what to expect, but a pair of kiddie chopsticks with a bright green silicone frog mascot on the top was not what he was expecting. His face only reddened deeper until he could feel his neck burning; especially since they were being dead serious, and Levi offered the chopsticks to him after re-seating himself.

They were connected at the top, making it impossible to not use them, but it was embarrassing to even be holding them. With Levi's gaze on him, and Kuchel glancing at her son, he'd lost his appetite.

"Oh, Levi, stop it," his mother finally laughs.

Looking to his left, Levi rolls his eyes, pulling the fork and spoon he'd hidden in his other hand. Eren takes them graciously, and sets the children's chopsticks aside. Quietly, he begins eating, but admittedly laughs in the end at the cruel joke. If his mother weren't around he would have made a jab at firing him.

"Thank you," sheepishly, he begins eating.

"So," Kenny says loudly, almost making Eren drop his silverware. He'd forgotten the old man was there. "Levi, how have you been?"

For some reason, Eren half expects the ravenet to begin speaking, but he only offers Kenny a gentle nod and shrugs.

"He got a job," Kuchel answers for him sweetly.

"Where at?" The man asks; Levi is becoming physically uncomfortable as he just tries to eat quietly. It must be frustrating for the raven, Eren assumes.

"With me," Eren answers, not helping his burning face any. Kenny's brows raise, and Levi even glances over quickly. "I hired him."

"Oh, and what do you do?" The man drinks whatever brown liquid is in his glass, Eren can smell that it's whiskey from here.

"I run my own shop. My mother founded it, I took it over," he explains, not wanting to give this guy any reason to look down on him or Levi. "It's a little hole in the wall near the beach. The Smiling Titan."

"So how does that work?" Kenny grumbles, staring down the ravenet now. "Do you speak to the customers?"

"Levi works with customers just fine," defensively, Eren keeps his eyes on his plate, but raises his voice slightly at this man's persistence to pry. "He works the register, or helps customers on the main floor. We haven't gotten a complaint yet."

"Yet." Kenny snorts, finishing his drink. Eren cringes that he gave him an opportunity for rebuttal. "You know, when this little shit was a teenager he never shut the fuck up. Always fightin', too, coming home with black eyes and all, yelling at everyone. Did you know that, Eren?"

"No," the brunet clears his throat, "I can't imagine it."

"How old are you?" He asks.

"18," it's not a complete lie, but the question tenses Eren up enough to stretch the truth. It was only a month more until his birthday anyway.

Kenny seems to be satisfied with this answer, because he only grumbles, "You look younger."

"Wow, so young and you already have your own business?" Levi's mom says in genuine awe. "How do you manage school?"

"I haven't gone to college yet," he sheepishly admits. "My mom is sick. I'm trying to take care of her until she's better, then I'll consider school."

There was no point in lying, and he hated making a bad image out of himself in front of parents; it seemed to be his forte. At the least it gets the question off of his back, and Levi's mother apologizes softly before returning to his meal, as does everyone else in silence until Levi's phone vibrates, and emerald eyes peek over only slightly to read the message Levi clicks on.

 **[From] [Hanji]**

 _Are you coming home tonight? Moblit is here! We got pizza!_

 **[To] [Hanji]**

 _I'll be home soon. Don't wait up for me._

Eren looks away when Levi sits his phone down.

Admittedly, Eren is curious about Levi's way of living, and who his friends are, if he has any. There were times that Levi's eyes just seemed so sad, or his lips twitched, as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't. There were so many questions Eren had, and most regarded around him choosing not to speak. He'd asked before, and Levi didn't seem too bent on opening up anytime soon, so he left it to imagination.

What a horrible feeling it must be to know you _killed_ someone _. How could you wake up every day with that guilt over your head?_ Eren didn't blame Levi for the muteness, but damn it he was curious.

 _What the hell does that voice sound like?_

"What ever happened to that girl, huh?" Kenny's voice makes its reappearance in the silence, and Eren's thoughts are interrupted. Levi looks up again, brows furrowed. "What was her name? She had that real pretty strawberry blond hair."

"Petra," his mother answers, seemingly confused. "You two were never dating, were you?"

Levi shakes his head.

"Why the hell not?" His laughter is grating. Motioning his hands around his chest like breasts, he earns a scowl from everyone at the table. "She was good lookin' in all the right places."

"Levi likes men, Kenny, we've been over this," Kuchel's voice is tight as she tries to remain her kind tone. When Kenny opens his mouth again, Kuchel interrupts him, snapping quickly, "And there is nothing wrong with that."

Sighing, the raven pulls his phone from his pocket, having to nudge Eren since emerald eyes were glued awkwardly to his plate. Under the table Levi is typing.

 _'I didn't know he would be here. I wouldn't have invited you,'_ it reads. _'We'll go in a few minutes.'_

Eren offers to take the phone, which Levi hands over hesitantly. It's hard to type on an iPhone, considering it's slightly larger than his Android; slowly he forms a message back, not wanting to speak aloud.

 _'Its ok,'_ Eren types. _'Take ur time'_

A slight nod is all Levi has to offer before pocketing his phone. Offering a small apologetic tight smile to his mother, the ravenet gets up with his plate, motioning for Eren to give him his, and the brunet helps Levi collect all of their dirty dishes before they take him to the sink, all the while Kuchel seems to be scolding Kenny in Japanese.

They scrape their little bit of remaining food off into the trash, and Levi washes the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. Eren, skittishly, thanks Levi's mother quietly, accepts her soft hug and waits for Levi by the door. While slipping his shoes on he can hear Levi's mom apologizing quietly, following Levi to the front door. In his hands is a baggy now, Eren only guesses it's some leftovers.

The raven takes his time hugging his mother, sighing when she pulls away, and simply shrugs in response before putting his shoes back on.

"Text me when you're home," she smiles. "And thank you, Eren, for joining us for dinner. I'm sorry it went downhill."

"It's okay," he lamely offers a smile. "I understand."

It takes a few more minutes before the both of them can get out of the door, with his mother seeming concerned, but Eren has no idea what she's saying besides the few words Mikasa had taught him and his lame anime knowledge. He almost feels embarrassed to know.

When they do get out of the door the walk begins quietly. Neither of them say a word; Eren carries the baggy to convince Levi to talk— _text_ , but to no avail. Even with free hands Levi keeps them at his side, and the brunet can't help but to glance out of the corner of his eye every so often.

Surely he feels awkward about the dinner. Reluctantly, Eren says the only thing coming to mind.

"I'm sorry about this morning," quietly comes Eren's voice, and when Levi looks up again his expression twitches until irked. Before Levi has a chance to type, Eren sighs. "I really am an asshole."

 _'It's fine,'_ Levi types. _'Just give me a little heads up next time.'_

"There won't be a next time, I promise," he chuckles.

 _'What'_ Levi begins, sighing. He is curious; for more reasons than one. Eren is, well, attractive, it would be a lie for Levi to say he wouldn't put him on a list of options. Dealing with ex-boyfriend baggage, however, is a deal breaker. _'What is the deal? With Jean?'_

"I…," he begins quietly, eyes shutting as he purses his lips. "I fucked up. Really bad."

 _'Can't be that bad,'_ his text says. _'I mean, you hired me, how much worse can it be?'_

Despite Levi's half smile, Eren finds it less than amusing with only a sigh for a response. Assuming the worst, Levi thinks he has it figured out, until Eren swallows hard.

"I fucked him," the brunet says bluntly. "I've been fucking him for… God… _years_. We've never even actually… dated. We don't even _like_ each other, but it's like… when we're home alone, playing games or some shit, it just _happens_."

Although the knowledge is TMI, Levi straightens his disgusted expression and tries not to imagine it.

 _'What's so bad about that?'_

"He's with Marco," his voice wobbles, he holds a hand over his stomach as he speaks. "I've never told Marco. I just thought if I stopped doing it I wouldn't feel like such a piece of shit. I thought if I showed you off as my boyfriend Jean would drop it, too, but…"

Silently, Levi watches Eren's expression through his eyelashes. Out of the corner of his eye he can see the disgust over Eren's face; while Levi's phone dims to sleep, he lowers his hands, unsure of what to say next besides a soft hum.

"I told Armin," he continues flatly. "He was… _so_ disgusted with me. I thought he would understand, but he couldn't believe I would do such a shitty thing. When he said he couldn't keep this a secret, I blew up on him. Armin has always liked Jean… I should have known better."

They missed the turn they should have taken, but Levi doesn't point it out. Having no idea where this road goes, he accepts it with silence.

Clearing his throat softly, Levi wakes his phone again, typing slowly as he thinks.

 _'You made the wrong choice, you regret it, there isn't much more to that,'_ both of them stop now so Eren can read. _'If you want my personal opinion, I think you should tell Marco, because if his scumbag boyfriend will cheat on him with someone he can't even stand, who's to say he won't do it with other people?'_

"I mean… I didn't think of that."

 _'Worst case scenario, you get yelled at again, but what's new?'_ He frowns as he holds up the phone. _'Best case scenario, your friends respect you again. It might take a while, but they'll know it was the right thing to do.'_

"I hate that you're right," he sighs sadly.

Humming in acknowledgement, Levi cocks his head, waiting for Eren's gaze to return to his; slowly it does, and when the brunet offers a weary smile, Levi takes cue to begin walking again. Remembering Hanji's offer before, he types again.

 _'Since we didn't finish dinner, do you want some pizza?'_ He realizes something midway of Eren reading that and shakes his head, adding: _'If you're not busy or anything.'_

"I'm not busy," Eren stammers. "But I wouldn't want to intrude any more than I have."

 _'You're not.'_ He types irately. _'You couldn't b'_ **delete.** Wouldn't want Eren thinking he's _not_ annoying. _'Just have a few slices and I'll leave you alone.'_

"I… am actually still pretty hungry."

Humming contently, Levi puts his phone away, and changes his pace back to speed as they turn around, Eren laughing at his stupidity to miss the turn.

* * *

He opens the door, but something stops it from opening fully; the living room lights are off, but he can see a light on dimly in the back of the apartment with music accompanying obnoxiously loud. The chain lock seems to have been locked, he realizes. Irately, he closes the door and knocks on it. Once, twice, and one last time while texting Hanji.

 **[To] [Hanji]**

 _Hey._

 _I'm home._

 _Open the door._

 _You locked the door._

 _Hanji?_

Five minutes pass, and he informs Eren he's waiting for his roommate to read his texts; he even tries to call her, but it goes straight to her voicemail, so he assumes her phone is off. Aggravated now, he informs Eren: _'They turned their fucking phone off.'_

"Want me to yell?" Eren asks.

 _Embarrassing._

 _'What'_ **delete**. _'I mean'_ **delete**. _'I'_ **delete** _. 'I don't k'_ **delete**.

Rolling his eyes, he knocks on the door with his palm now, much heavier than before. When nothing more comes, he types.

 _'I don't know; they've never done this.'_

"Well, at least I came with you," Eren offers sheepishly. "Otherwise you'd be stuck out here alone."

 _'I **could** break the lock off, you know.'_ The ravenet informs him.

"Oh, I'll stick some gum over the peephole while you're at it," the brunet snorts, giving Levi seconds to catch onto the reference before they both huff at the lame joke. Sighing, Eren motions towards the steps, "Whatever, we can just eat our leftovers here instead."

 _'Outside?'_ Levi grimaces; considering the porch light wasn't even on. _'I don't want flies in my rice.'_

"Just until your roommate opens the door," Eren shrugs. "You have a better idea?"

 _'What about your pl'_ **delete**. _'Fine.'_

Reluctantly, the raven turns from the door and plops down aggravated onto the first step. With his eyes glued to his phone, he doesn't notice Eren has been sitting beside him until he hears the baggy rustling. Of course, his mother tied it extra tight. Setting his phone down, Levi jabs his fingers through the plastic bag and tears it open for the brunet.

There was no silverware, and Eren had no idea how to use the chopsticks. Rolling his eyes, Levi puts away the other pair, and pulls his own apart. Scooting closer to Eren, he takes the Tupperware into his own lap and plucks a piece of fish out of the container, offering it to Eren.

"Really? You're going to feed me?" The brunet knits his brows, smirking when Levi nods.

Reluctantly, more or less due to the tense air, he opens his mouth, allowing Levi to feed him. The ravenet thinks nothing of the situation, and plucks his own piece out before popping it into his mouth, however with Eren's hip glued to his, he found it a bit harder to swallow now that his throat felt tight; the humidity wasn't helping anything either.

Levi must have made this too obvious from rolling the sleeves of his sweater up and exhaling.

"I can hold that," Eren offers. Levi does take the opportunity, handing Eren everything as he strips his sweater off and folds it neatly into his lap. Now their arms brush together, and the soft wind of the night they do have is hotter than usual from the ravenet's burning face. Once Eren hands everything back over, he clears his throat, and mumbles, "You can take your scarf off, too."

It takes him a few moments to register those words. His scarf wasn't a thing anymore, but it was more like a part of him. He forgot taking it off was something regular people would just _do_. Holding the Tupperware in his lap, Levi texts: 'Why would I do that?'

"It's not hot but I mean… under all of that it's got to be warm, right?" Nervously, Eren shrugs, fumbling with the stray strands on his jeans. "I mean… you wear scarves for some reason. It's definitely not to be stylish, and with this heat, I don't understand why else you would."

Hesitantly, Levi picks his phone back up, thinking over his words before he types them.

 _'I just have a scar,'_ Levi sighs heavily.

"So?" He isn't in the least surprised; almost as if he already suspected so. Eren scrunches his nose; Levi tries to preoccupy Eren with a piece of fish but the brunet only talks while he chews. "I have a pretty nasty scar on my knee from skateboarding, but I'm not going to torture myself and wear jeans every day."

 _'It's different.'_

"Tell me why, then."

 _'It just…,'_ he sighs, trying to think of his next words, _'people stare at it when they should be looking at **me** ,'_ he simply types. _'I don't like it.'_

"Well… I wouldn't," the teenager offers lamely. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable working around me, or talking to me, for that matter."

 _'I'm not uncomfortable.'_

"You're sweating," the brunet says as-a-matter-of-factly. "You're _always_ sweating. You're going to have a heatstroke eventually."

Levi honestly couldn't argue with that. Sighing, Levi lets his phone go to sleep from a lack of words. He picks at the rice instead, jabbing his chopsticks into the pieces of still wet tofu.

"Can I take it off?" Comes Eren's quiet, muttered voice. Furrowing his brows, Levi glances up, chewing on his bottom lip all the while mustering over the thought.

 _'I'_ **delete**. He sighs. _'Eren'_ **delete**. _'It's not that simp'_ **delete.** _'If you even make one fucking jo'_

"I'm not going to," Eren interrupts with a smile that irritates Levi even further.

There really was nothing Levi could do if Eren did make a joke, besides knock the little shit out, but deal with the damage of someone else judging him. His fingers tapped anxiously against his sleeping phone screen. With one more long sigh, he finally gives in with a shrug and a nod.

Silently, the brunet tugs at the ends of the fabric, idiotically not doing much good at removing, but Levi realizes Eren is giving him a chance to take it back. Sighing nasally, Levi pokes his finger through the knot in his scarf, and Eren finishes undoing it with gentle but warm hands.

Slowly, the fabric loosens, and Levi feels bare. It glides against his exposed skin as Eren removes it completely.

Silver watches green, as Eren's eyes scan his damaged skin briefly, before smiling.

"Oh, you're right Levi," the brunet murmurs, and Levi's heart skips a beat. "You're even uglier than I thought."

Scowling, Levi snatches for his scarf back, agitated when Eren hides it on the other side of him. Laughter fills Levi's ears, before Eren is reassuring him, and a hand gently brushes the bottom of his jawline mockingly—but it's _not_ to mock him, it's _reassuring_ ; it stops Levi in his tracks. "I'm _kidding_! You're very cute."

Heart stopping, Levi tries not to let the embarrassment show too much. That hand trails down carefully, and through the numbness of the scar Levi can slightly feel Eren's fingers.

"It's hardly anything to worry about," is all he says before he returns his hands into his lap. "I like looking at _you_ much better.

From the little tussle Levi had forgotten his hand still on Eren's knee until the brunet lays a reassuring one over his. Instead of moving it, the ravenet simply fingers a wrinkle of Eren's jeans between his index and thumb.

"Seriously," Eren's voice relaxes. "I mean it. Stop wearing that thing around _me_ , at _least_ , if all you're worried about is me staring. I'm not going to treat you any differently."

He won't admit just how pleased the information makes him; instead he'll wait and see for himself. At the moment he's more worried about Eren's hand on top of his with fingers linked lazily and a reassuring thumb brushing against his knuckles. With his heart pounding in his ears, he only nods in acknowledgment and swallows the lump in his throat.

It had been years since he's even thought of dating anyone, not that anyone would, because Levi seems to come with a lot of baggage, so Farlan informed him after his last breakup.

In an act to act even the slightest bit normal, he uses his free hand to pick up his chopsticks, grabbing another piece of food to offer to the brunet. Eren says nothing as he takes it.

Before Levi lets his feelings overwhelm him any longer, he types with one hand—a talent that had come over the years of doing this—and flashes it to Eren: _'What are you going to do about Jean?'_

"What do you mean?"

 _'I mean if he comes onto you again,'_ he types slowly. _'And if you're going to tell Marco.'_

This must have struck a nerve; Eren frowns, his thumb tenses in one spot on Levi's hand now. As Eren shrugs, he also begins bobbing his knee.

"I don't think he'll do anything now that he thinks we're together," he explains quietly, staring at their hands now; Levi wondered if Eren felt the same worry, afraid to move onto something else. Then again, he wondered if Eren even wanted _this_ to be something, or if he was overthinking again. "I don't know about Marco…"

Humming in acknowledgement, the two of them fall quiet. It wasn't the answer he was looking for, yet it wasn't anything to disapprove of either.

If anything else, Eren wasn't even 18 yet.

Slipping his hand out of the brunet's, he pops the top back onto the containers and re-bags everything. He ignores Eren's hand now and picks up his phone, staring at it silently. The brunet tucks his hands between his knees afterwards.

His phone lights up from a text, and he checks it eagerly.

 **[From] [Hanji]**

 _Shit_

Scoffing, he hears Hanji's feet loudly stomping as she runs around the apartment, and seconds later both of them stand up when the porch light flips on and the door swings open.

"I'm so sorry!" Hanji wails. "My phone died, and I didn't think you'd be back so soon!"

He begins to type, but double takes Hanji's face; mascara is running down their face, and their eyes look swollen past glasses. Instead of a snappy comment, he types instead: _'Are you okay?'_ as he and Eren walk closer to the front door.

Hanji seemed to try to nod, maybe even smile, but their chin wrinkles once they shake their head.

"Come in." Their voice breaks as she turns.

Unsure of what to do with Eren, he only motions for him to come in, not much caring at this point considering Hanji's state. Once everyone is in, Eren is the one closing the door, and Hanji has a hand over their mouth; Levi can now smell the alcohol on her. For a minute he wonders if Hanji has even seen Eren in the doorway, but cares little when they finally let a small squeak out.

"Moblit proposed!" Hanji wails out.

Levi's shoulder sulk in annoyance.

 _'You made me think something was wrong you piece of shit,'_ he types quickly, shoving it into their face. _'Where is the ring?'_

"We're shopping for one tomorrow," Hanji giggles, pulling him into a bone breaking bear hug. "He told me not to tell anyone yet but I can't just _not_ tell my best friend!"

Reluctantly, he wraps his arms around them, even accepting Hanji rocking him back and forth.

"Oh God, I'm sorry, who is _this_?" Hanji pulls back, rubbing their eyes free of any stray tears.

Levi begins to type, but Eren crosses the room instead, introducing himself with that perfect pearly smile.

"Eren," he grins.

"Oh! The cute boss!" Hanji chirps, nudging Levi. "I'm Hanji, Levi's roommate!"

"Nice to meet you." He replies. Although Hanji does embarrass the shit out of him, Eren not responding to the _cute_ part shoots his hopes back down. What a petty thought. "I actually should get back home though… my mom is probably worried."

"M… _mom_?" Hanji cocks their head, squinting at Levi now.

"Yeah?" He chuckles. "You know, the thing you come out of?"

"Yeah," Hanji smiles absently, giving Levi one of those _you have some explaining to do,_ looks.

" _Yeah_ ," Eren repeats, eyeing the two of them suspiciously. "Anyway, I should get home now. My mom is probably worried sick."

Eren congratulates Hanji on the proposal, which sends them into another giggling frenzy. Levi takes the blessing to get out of Hanji's wild stare. He nods, silently when Eren's back is turned, to say, _I know, I have explaining to do, stop fucking looking at me like that._

Exiting the apartment again, Eren stops at the top of the stairs, waiting for Levi as he pulls his phone out and types.

 _'I'm sorry I drug you all the way here for nothing,'_ it says. _'Do you still want pizza? I'll get it to go.'_

"No, it's fine," Eren smiles. "And it's fine. I didn't come for nothing."

 _That's true_ , Levi thinks, and the more he stares at Eren, the more he realizes the brunet had kept true to his word, for now. Not once did Levi catch Eren staring at his throat.

In the silence, and Levi spacing off, Eren's smile turned to a frown.

"I'm sorry about your uncle," Eren starts off, baffling Levi to no end. "I mean… I'm sorry for arguing with him. Or… well, _trying_ to."

 _'It's fine.'_ Levi chews on his bottom lip. _'I appreciate it.'_

The brunet offers a dopey smile; Levi's heart stops.

"Anyway, I do have to get home," he resumes, although he looks as if he wanted to say more. Looking through his lashes as he speaks with a sweet smile, he resumes, "I'll see you at work tomorrow. Sleep in if you need to, it is pretty late."

 _'I'll be there the same time as every day.'_

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." Eren scoffs. "We'll get some coffee."

 _'We'll hate ourselves.'_

"But at least we'll have coffee."

 _'Tea.'_

"Whatever," Eren chuckles, taking a step back. "I'll see you."

Levi finds himself frowning, but hums, nodding slightly as Eren takes his first step down the stairs. It isn't until Eren is down the street, engulfed in the shadows of the night, that Levi lifts his hand to his throat, realizing that Eren had taken his scarf with him.


	5. Sunrise Angel

**Authors Note:**

I'm sorry this update is so short ; ;

A few things have happened since I last updated. I stopped smoking, which is a huge thing for me bc I've been smoking for like 7 years now and it was disgusting. All my clothes smell 10x better and I started vaping which is honestly pretty nice but so damn expensive ffs.

I failed an exam so I've been taking my classes a little bit more seriously, which kind of hinders me from updating as much as I used to.

I just got back from Chicago (driving from Florida) so I'm dead ass tired but I really wanted to update this fic. I've been thinking about it ever since I got on the road. (I might even throw a roadtrip into this fic because I love roadtrip fics whoops) I haven't even looked at my bank account and I'm kind of scared to because Chicago was so expensive lmao. We almost got into so many accidents. I pity if any of my readers live there. ; ;

Anyway, that's my explanation for not updating sooner. Things have been rough but I'm always thinking of ideas for this fic more than others because I love it so much euu

Thanks to everyone for the continuous support. uwu

* * *

It was the crack of dawn and someone was already at the door—it couldn't have been Levi; he came in early, but never this early. In fact, the sun was hardly up, and Eren had barely cleaned off the register when he heard the knock at the door. These stupid fucking tourists couldn't read a one-worded sign.

Sighing, he drops the dust rag on the top of the register, looping around to stomp to the front door, shaking his head the entire way. Just in case, he does check his phone, mostly for a message from Levi, but there isn't one.

He's got some fine choice words for whoever is interrupting him before he's had his coffee. It's still too dark outside, so he flips the switch near the front of the door, and the figure outside winces, holding a delicate hand over their face to block out the light.

It's surprising to say at the least the person outside is Mikasa, dressed in her lacey white dress and her free hand buried in her jean jacket.

Swallowing thickly, he tries to shake off his irritation before Mikasa sees.

Unlocking the door, he swings it open.

"Sorry for blinding you," he chuckles, regretting the choice of words when Mikasa's subtle smile turns into a frown.

He had a problem, and Mikasa knew it—she was the only one who did. Anyone else would worry him into an early grave.

It was worse enough he was color blind—deuteranopia was his shitty condition. Everyone told him what gorgeous green eyes he had, but he never knew. Everything around him was a shitty shade of greys and shit-brown. There were ways around it. He'd had Mikasa teach him colors, and he's become better at assuming colors, but it was always problematic.

As if it weren't his only issue, Mikasa knew, and he knew all too well, he would go blind.

In his left eye he'd already developed a cataract; it wasn't serious, but it was getting worse, and even his glasses weren't helping anymore. Surgery was too expensive—it wasn't even an option for him.

No one knew entirely why all of this happened in just his eyes. His health overall was fine, besides being at risk for diabetes. That explained his cataracts, but the colorblindness was just another unrelated curse he held.

Sometimes he thought it bothered Mikasa more than it did himself.

It would take a while, a lifetime maybe, but one day he'd lose all vision.

"I brought you breakfast," she says softly, as if her voice would wake up the whole neighborhood. He lets her inside, out of the cold, and passes her as she takes off her jacket. "Eggs and rice. It's all I had to work with. Mom hasn't gone grocery shopping yet."

"That's just fine," he smiles softly. While she digs into her book bag and pulls out the tuber ware he resumes dusting off the counter. "Thanks."

"Don't think this means I'm not mad at you still," she's joking, Eren learned how her pitch changes, but he knows she's serious to an extent.

"I know," he sighs, "I wanted to talk to you about that."

"Eat first," she pulls a plastic fork from her book bag, motioning him with it.

So he eats, reluctantly. Ever since he and Levi had talked this over last night his stomach was in knots. It was the right thing to do—tell Marco. Those words repeat in his head.

 _Tell Marco. Tell Marco. Tell Marco._

 _It's what a good friend would do._

 _You'll lose him, but it's right._

No matter how much reasoning he gives himself behind those words, it still doesn't feel right. None of it feels right; it never was from the very beginning. Knowing he never loved Jean in the first place, and Marco poured his heart out to the asshole—no, Jean wasn't the asshole, it was him, he knew that—he ruined someone's engagement, marriage, future, all for what?

A lousy fuck, that's what.

Every bite he took tasted like bile. His hands shook every time he considered bringing it up.

Mikasa spoke to him while they ate, but her words were quiet and muffled. Every time her lips stopped moving, he gave a weary smile to acknowledge but not register.

It was eating him up inside.

Ever since he'd stopped taking his medication he hadn't had a breakdown; that was only three months ago, but three months is a long time to forget what panic feels like, and once it hits again, it feels like he's only waiting, bound up on a train track, knowing it's going to come, and there's no one to untie him.

 _Tell Marco._

Levi would be proud of him; Armin and Mikasa would respect him again. Jean and Marco will hate him.

He regrets ever bringing it up.

So he keeps quiet about it now.

"I hired someone," Eren says after the conversation has died down; the static in his head seems to go away when Mikasa lifts her brows. Nodding, he smiles, "His name is Levi. He's mute—so, it's kind of cute, you know?"

"How is that cute?" She scoffs, waving her fork at him lazily.

"Well, because, I guess we kind of go hand in hand," he shrugs, sarcastically continuing, "You know, he's mute, I'm blind in one eye. It's cute… because it's funny. I have no idea how I'll speak to him if I do go blind."

"You won't be working if you go blind," she corrects him. "Did you tell him about your condition?"

"Hell no," his expression irks. "No one wants to work for someone who bumps into the wall every time they turn around."

Sounds familiar—almost like what Levi said about no one wanting to hire a mute.

 _Funny._

Yeah, it _was_ funny, in its own fucked up way.

"Well, I do," she says as-a-matter-of-factly. They've finished their breakfast, so she clicks the lid back on and stuffs it back into her book bag. "That's why I'm always a call away if you need me. You didn't have to hire someone else."

"I thought you were mad at me," he shrugs—the static is quiet in the back of his head. He changes the subject, "Shouldn't you be getting to class soon?"

She flicks her wrist to check the leather watch on her wrist—a gift Eren had given her; he found it during a garage sale. The owner must have not known it was Rolex, because he'd only bought it for 20 bucks.

"Shit," she hisses, zipping her book bag up frantically. "I'm going to be late."

Eren checked the clock himself; it was 20 after 8 AM. Levi wasn't due for another 2 hours, but he would have to open the shop when Mikasa leaves; that meant he'd be alone with all of these thoughts again, and no amount of cleaning could distract him from it.

"I'll text you when I get there," she pulls him into a tight hug, although he has no time to actually return it. She twirls around, finding her jacket and calls over her shoulder, "Message me if you need help, I seriously don't mind!"

"Don't count on it!" He retorts sarcastically.

She rolls her eyes before she leaves. Her car is parked outside on the curb; Eren watches from the counter as she tosses her backpack into the muddy Ford Pickup. She lived on the outskirts of the city, deep into the woods. Her father was a hunter, which meant they never actually came into the city, besides for Mikasa to attend school or work at the shop occasionally.

Since her dad has gotten ill though it's been up to her fragile mother to keep things together. Eren didn't have to be told to know that wasn't working out well.

Of course he would just give her the money—he wouldn't make her work for it.

She's seated in her fathers' truck when she honks twice, before the engine grumbles as she drives off.

The next two hours consists of Eren blaring a randomized playlist off of Spotify on his cheap Bluetooth speaker, sweeping up the sand from the beach that tracks its way into his shop and polishing the nooks and crannies of his register counter. It was littered in stickers, mostly advertisements, but he did get a small sum from those companies. After a while customers began sticking their own on it, and it just became a portrait of different colors and advertisements.

He didn't care much; it added some life to the dull place.

His mother however would kneel over and die.

It was about 30 minutes until Levi was supposed to clock in, but the ravenet arrived early, as per usual. Seeing another face after such a lonely morning was refreshing; he'd go as far to say he even became a bit happy when he saw Levi standing outside the glass door, hand in his hoodie pocket, phone in his hand and eyes occupied on it.

There was something off—it took Eren a minute to realize it—Levi wasn't wearing his scarf.

It's not like he forgot their night together, it just seemed unreal for someone to actually listen to him for once.

Of course, the scar was disgusting, Eren wouldn't admit that, but it looked nasty, and his curiosity was furious. It was jagged, along his Adams apple, from his collarbone and ended just below his jaw. The cut wasn't clean, and it looked like some stitches were put in roughly. It was no wonder why Levi wanted to cover it up, but Eren wanted to know how it happened.

He assumed the car accident, but _how_ —how did Levi react? What happened? Who the hell _is_ Levi?

 _How did he live with himself?_

Eren could barely survive with this guilt of his own.

No matter how, or why, or what it looked like, Eren had to admit that Levi was a beautiful man.

If only he knew what color Levi's eyes were—he wondered what everyones' color was. Armin, Jean, Marco, Sasha, Connie, but he wondered Levi the most. He could ask Mikasa about anyone's eye color, except Levi's.

He knew Mikasas were grey only because she'd told him, and that's why he liked them—but Levi's could be anything. Blue, brown, green, hazel—anything.

They were a very pale grey—almost white—and he just couldn't add up what color that could be to the normal eye.

It would take a while to figure Levi out, and Eren only hoped he had the patience to.

* * *

 **End Note:**

I really didn't know how to introduce Eren's (color)blindness. I've wanted this ever since I thought of the fic, but had no idea how to actually introduce it. I have been waiting for the "what is Levi's eye color" joke for a really long time tho and I'm excited gb


	6. Eye Candy

**Authors Note:**

(the joke is Levi's eyes are grey)

I'm glad none of you expected it. u u Like I said, Levi's voice is one of his best traits imo, and Eren's eyes are the most admirable thing about his character, so I thought taking them away in a way would fit with alternating his character.

We're almost done with this fic actually. I don't think it will go past 11 chapters, but depending on if I have anymore additions to the story-line, it might last longer. I have to admit I kind of want it to be longer ;;

* * *

It was a little after noon, and the shop had only a few customers browsing through the back of the shop. While waiting for the shop to open, Levi must have been the one to put up the colorful streamers and wind chimes at the front of the store—Eren noticed, but never got around to asking, more or less because he didn't want to interrupt Levi.

There was a breeze that let itself into the shop—they were going to have a hurricane soon, but that didn't mean Eren didn't enjoy the warm air that made his shop sing.

The chimes almost seemed to be singing for Levi; he sat in the windowsill, and even though the window was long overdue for a cleaning, some sun still shimmered through the dust, allowing Eren the chance to see his irises turn a solid white as light reflected from them each time Levi's eyes flickered to watch a passing moment. An acoustic guitar was in his lap, one that belonged to Eren once actually. He'd been trying forever to sell the damn thing but never wanted to get around to cleaning the scuffs and bruises off of it.

While Levi seemed to be doing nothing more than tuning it, but Eren couldn't help but to stare.

With his chin on his palm, he might as well of had hearts in his eyes.

He wishes Levi would sing.

They hadn't done much work today, and Eren didn't plan to. Partially to admire the ravenet for a little bit longer, yet on the other hand, whenever the hurricane did come he would be closing shop. There was no reason to unpack anything else.

There was no reason to do anything but sit here. It was shitty logic, but Eren couldn't think of a good reason to tear his eyes away—not even when Levi looked up and their eyes met—he still couldn't break out of the blank stare he must have had on his face. Instead, he smiled ever so softly, and the corners of Levi's lips rose in return, almost sheepishly, before his eyes focused again on the guitar strings.

The brunet's eyes wandered with Levi's; his hands were so small and delicate, but clean and nails trimmed perfectly. If Eren didn't know any better, he would assume Levi has his nails professionally done.

His fingers moved slow on the strings—he must have been done tuning. Eren could barely hear the soft melody, but he could hear enough to know Levi knew how to play the guitar.

Levi's skin seemed pale. He was lighter than Eren, but not quite as light as Armin.

He wandered so much what Levi's colors were.

He almost wanted to just ask.

Serene, they stayed like this for another 40 minutes or so while Eren absently checked the few customers out. Eventually the sunny skies turned dark, and the sun wasn't shining through anymore, the breeze became so chaotic the doors and windows had to be shut, and Levi sat the guitar back in the corner before he disappeared in the break room while Eren shut the shop down.

It was probably best they both go home before a storm came.

When the door was locked, Eren headed back to the break room, finding Levi on his phone, naturally.

"We should probably get out of here," Eren speaks as he digs through the fridge for a bottle of water. "It looks like it's going to rain soon."

Grabbing a spare, he sits across from Levi, setting the extra water next to him. The ravenet barely acknowledges him, and doesn't bother with the water, but keeps his eyes on his phone and his fingers tapping rapidly.

"Everything… okay?" Eren's brows furrow—he worries he may have come off creepy earlier.

Levi huffs, his eyes flickering to meet Eren's for only a moment before he returns back to texting.

After a minute or two more of sitting with his hands tucked between his knees, Eren finally hears the bleep of Levi's phone that a message has been sent. Seconds later Levi holds his phone out for Eren to read finally.

 _'My roommate is moving out tomorrow.'_ It reads. _'They barely gave me a fucking notice.'_

"The one that's getting married?" Eren recalls. Levi nods, his hand over his mouth as his leg bounces under the table. So this is what Levi looked like when he was pissed off. It made Eren's stomach churn, and he wasn't even sure why. Still, he tries to find his voice. "That's… that's really shitty. Did you two split rent?"

 _'Yeah,'_ Levi types quick. _'That's the fucking problem.'_

"W-Well, Levi, I could help?" The brunet smiles sheepishly, shrugging. "I am your boss. I can give you an advance."

It would put him in the hole for sure.

 _'No,'_ the next text reads. _'I can get by. I'll be fine. I just didn't want to do this.'_

"I can still help," Eren sighs. When Levi picks his phone back up with that sour expression, Eren leans over the table, plucking it out of his hands and sits it down. "I'm not asking."

The look Levi gives him is one that makes his skin crawl; if Eren wasn't his boss, he's sure Levi would have beat his ass right then and there. Swallowing hard, he tries not to be affected by it.

"We should go now," Eren says as he sticks his head out of the break room; it's already sprinkling outside. "It's about to start raining."

The ravenet sighs heavily, his eyes stuck on his phone for what feels like minutes of silence, but finally he begins typing, and flashes the phone up with a twisted expression.

 _'I don't really want to go home,_ ' the text says at first, but Levi adds more. _'It will just be chaotic.'_

"I could always go back with you," Eren suggests. "I could help your roommate get their things out."

 _'No, you'll just have to listen to us argue.'_ Levi shakes his head, groaning softly. Eren doesn't mind that one bit, as long as he gets to hear Levi. _'Do you mind if I just stay at the shop for a while? You don't have to stay.'_

"I'm not leaving you here alone." The brunet scoffs.

 _'Don't trust me?'_ Behind that text is a shitty half-assed smile.

"That's not… no." His grin falls—once he realizes Levi is amused, Eren rolls his eyes. "I can pull an old TV out, get some blankets and find a movie around the shop. By the time it's over the storm should have passed and we can head home."

A content smile passed over Levi's expression for only a brief moment, followed by a nod, before the ravenet stuffed his phone back into his pocket and followed Eren into the front of the shop. They realized staying in was probably the best idea, considering the front door was rattling from the strong winds, and the roads looked like they were flooding.

"Shit." Eren grumbles.

They decide on closing the blinds to avoid looking at the horror unfolding outside, and Eren heads into the attic in search for a TV, while Levi sits himself on the floor, flipping through old DVD's.

When Eren returns, it's with a small, box TV that looks like it outdates them both. Neither of them are complaining.

He plugs it in behind the counter, where Levi and Eren both carry every blanket in the shop and make a fort out of it—if only they had some hot chocolate now. When everything is set up, Levi grabs a handful of discs while Eren plugs in an old DVD player.

After a few minutes of browsing, they both settle on A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy—it was mindless enough.

The time came to finally settle down into their little plush pile of blankets, and Eren realizes once Levi sits down first that the space is extremely small. They would, without a doubt, have to be huddled together, but everything was already set up, and frankly Eren wasn't complaining. He hoped Levi didn't mind as he sat himself next to Levi.

It was such a tight space that Levi had to rest his shoulder over Eren's.

Neither of them seemed to mind.

 _'You know what I hate the most about these kind of movies?'_ A text message breaks Eren's eyes away from the screen—not that he was paying much attention anyway. He hums in acknowledgement, and Levi types.

 _'The always have to add some dumbass romance. The story was great enough, why did he have to be in love, too?'_ His message says _. 'Not to mention the woman is such a cunt anyway. She treats him like shit because he won't travel out of country with her on the first date? What the fuck.'_

Eren laughs, shrugging, finding no argument to that logic.

"That's true. It is pretty stupid."

 _'Plus half of the damn movie they pretend they hate each other when in reality they love each other,'_ Levi scoffs, but a smile flatters his face. _'If they just loved each other so much they should have just said something and saved some screen time.'_

That definitely struck a nerve for Eren—he couldn't argue against Levi though. He simply nodded, humming in agreement with a weak smile before the two of them went back to the movie.

They were only about 30 minutes in, the shop had fallen silent besides the rain pattering on the roof and the wind howling through cracks in the window.

It could have been the relaxed look on Levi's face, or maybe just the fact that Eren couldn't help but to stare at his scar now as the questions tumbled around in his head. His curiosity was getting worse—he wanted to know.

The more he knew Levi, the more he wanted to know.

"Hey, Levi," this was not a good idea—and yet he just couldn't stop himself. Would Levi hate him for asking again? He hopes not. He really hopes not. He sucks in a deep breath when Levi hums. "Can I ask you something about your scar?"

The look that comes over Levi's face is almost like he predicted this. His eyes fall lazily, and any smile that ghosted over his expression had gone away. Stuttering, Eren tries to fix his words.

"How did you… like… get it?" That wasn't a great way of wording it. Awful, in fact. Eren cringes. "Was it the accident… or…?"

 _'I didn't try to kill myself if that's what you're thinking,_ ' Levi's text is as blunt as his glare. Sighing nasally, Levi types slowly, and Eren tries not to look over his shoulder, but he can tell Levi backspaces a lot. It takes a while, but Levi finally holds his phone back up.

 _'The accident was a head on collision, some glass from the windshield went through my airbag. I didn't even notice until I tried talking and spit up blood instead.'_

"Is that why you don't talk?"

Levi's fingers fidget around his keyboard without actually typing. Another sigh, this time heavier, with brows furrowed while he types.

 _'Do you really want to know?'_

"Yeah." Softly, he answers. "I want to know everything about you."

Levi closes his eyes for a few moments, taking one last inhale before blowing it out nasally, his eyes almost seeming tired as he glares at Eren.

With another huff, he begins typing.

 _'We were on a trip to Disney World,'_ the text begins. Levi must have noticed Eren's confusion, because he types again. _'Hanji, and my friends Farlan and Isabel.'_

"Oh."

 _'It was Isabel's 17th birthday, I wanted to do something special for her. There was only one road for both lanes, and it curved. I didn't see the other car until it was too late, but they must have swerved off of their own lane by accident. I looked away for one fucking second and the next thing I remember is my head slamming into my steering wheel.'_

Eren wants to tell him that's enough—he didn't even have to go that into detail, but it seems like Levi is hell-bent on spilling his guts considering his fingers are still moving, and Eren is far too curious to stop him.

 _'There was so much fucking blood. Isabel broke both of her arms and sprained her neck. Farlan broke a leg, and his head was bleeding… so was mine, and Hanji's. All of us hit our heads. Hanji and I were the only ones conscious. The airbags went off too late. I'm surprised we lived.'_

Eren's heart sinks, his expression sulks as he tries to imagine. He doesn't _want_ to imagine it.

 _'I remember Hanji shouting at me to stay still, but I got out of the car anyway with a piece of glass sticking out of my neck. I had to see the other person. And they were worse. Her boyfriend got out of the car, he was built like a tank, and he was fucking giant. I thought he was going to kill me before my blood loss could.'_

Eren flares at this—to think of someone wanting to hurt Levi—it wasn't even his fault.

 _'His wife was in the front seat. Her baby was in the back. The baby died. All I saw was blood all over the windshield. I guess her baby wasn't strapped in. I tried to talk but I couldn't, and even if I could, her boyfriend just screamed at me to shut up. And the worst part? Hanji had a headcam on. It was all on camera. We only expected to record our ride to Disney World. That's the only reason I wasn't thrown in jail. I can't watch the video. That's all I remember.'_

"Levi…"

 _'All of my friends hate me for it so if you want to hate me too I wouldn't blame you.'_

"I don't hate you," Eren's brows furrow, he shakes his head, appalled Levi would even think that. His heart hammers to even consider his next action, but with trembling hands and his pulse pounding in his ears, he takes Levi's hand in his, linking their fingers together. It occupies his eyes so he won't have to look up at Levi. "It wasn't your fault. Your friends are fucking stupid for leaving you."

In the long silence Eren can only pull Levi in slowly, until the ravenet is bringing himself closer. Levi's nose is cold against Eren's neck, and his breath against the brunet's throat makes his skin flare. It takes moments of awkward fidgeting, but eventually Levi is half-assed between Eren's legs, with his back to the teen's chest. Eren keeps his arms tight around him, making sure not to let go for even a moment.

With his head on the top of Levi's head, he relishes in the scent of Levi's shampoo; something earthy—Levi always smelled like lavender and linen, but now it's intoxicating, it's all Eren can breathe in.

 _"Eren."_

The brunet doesn't register it at first—he's more convinced someone is outside of the shop, until he remembers the shop is closed, and looks down to see Levi's eyes opened, blinking as he stares at the wall. The voice was so soft, Eren was certain he was hearing things, but Levi's lips separate again.

"Eren," the ravenet says louder this time, although it's still like a whisper. His heart is pounding in his chest as he watches Levi's lips moving—the thumping of his pulse almost deafens him as Levi's eyes meet his. "Thanks for listening."

He's certain he's breathing heavy—probably because it feels like a God damn arrow was just shot through his heart, and he knows he looks like a deer stuck in headlights. He knows he's squeezing Levi tighter now, and he knows the ravenet can notice all of these things, right down to his pounding heart, but he doesn't care in the least bit.

His voice is so deep, but calm—it's indescribable. It sounds how silk feels, but gravelly in a way that makes Eren's face flush. He wants to hear it again; he wants to hear Levi say his name again even though it's tumbling around in his head like a mantra.

Some kind of noise escapes from Eren that should be a hum, but his voice cracks, and Levi lets out a small, quiet laugh.

He wants to kiss him.

Levi looks so perfect—this moment, it's perfect, their faces are so close—and yet, Eren can't find it in him to move a muscle. His body has never felt so stiff, he's never kissed anyone before, not even Jean—it was the one thing he was saving—and with no idea how to make the move, Eren remains motionless.

He knows the moment is over when Levi pulls his phone back up, typing.

 _'Let's get back to the movie.'_

Although he didn't disagree, the movie was the last thing on Eren's mind for the rest of the night. With Levi in his arms, he had finally mustered enough courage to rest his chin on Levi's shoulder, and that eventually turned to Eren's lips against the crook of Levi's neck, breathing softly as he stared at his own hands resting against Levi's chest.

Levi's story was replaying over and over again in his head. He couldn't imagine Levi like that… so near death. Just trying to picture it made his heart squeeze. A thought crossed him, that he never wanted to lose Levi, and never wanted anything to happen to him again.

He held Levi tighter, his fingers daintily brushing against Levi's as he watched the ravenet's chest rise and fall with every gentle, shallow breath. The scar is the last thing he wants to look at, but it's there, and it hurts now to see.

Closing his eyes, he tries not to think about it anymore.

He wants to be Levi's new roommate.

He wants to see him playing guitar again.

He wants to know the color of Levi's eyes.

He wants Levi to sing.

 _"Thanks for listening."_

His skin crawls just to remember what Levi's voice sounds like; he wants to hear it again so badly.

It took all of his courage again just to lay a soft, barely there kiss against the top of Levi's head.

His heart heavy now, he rests his head against Levi's, sighing into ebony hair as his eyes remain unfocused on a television he could barely make out any picture on. With the sky so dark, he's not sure what time of the day it is anymore, but eventually one of them felt asleep first, and Eren didn't mind the time of day; he fell asleep with Levi in his arms, content, curiosity still hungry, and horrible imagery to haunt his dreams.

He wanted to replace those images now.


	7. A Scarf Poorly Knit

**Authors Note:**

I had to get drunk to write this chapter omg

So... I did the math, and wrote down everything I would like to happen in this fic (I'll upload a picture of my notes last chapter because they're actually A+) and this fic is going to have around 20-25 chapters. uwu I could have made it 11 still, but there are things I want to happen that I wasn't originally going to include. I figure the babies deserve it though. ; ;

I really appreciate everything my readers have been saying as of late. It keeps me motivated! So if any of my readers have any works of your own just let me know or gift them to me so I can return the favor. 3

Gustare u u

* * *

Had to be morning now, the sun was up and shining, almost as if the storm had never happened—but it did, and he has Levi still asleep in his arms to prove it.

The ravenet looked peaceful; his lips came to a slight pout, and his lashes fluttered every so often in his sleep. His fists were clenched with Eren's shirt in them, but it didn't look like he'd been having a nightmare. His shoes were off, though, and Eren wondered if the ravenet was cold.

It was chilly in the shop, but that was usual in the mornings.

He wanted to go back to sleep, but the source of what woke him up in the first place came again—a knock at the door. He sighs, almost considering not even bothering with whoever it was and just going back to sleep.

But they knock again.

Last thing he wanted to do was wake Levi up, but his eyes were open the next time Eren had looked down. Smiling weakly, Eren undoes his arms from around Levi, and allows the ravenet to scoot into the corner of the desk where he curls up in a blanket and rests his head again.

Eren opens his mouth to speak; he's cut off with another knock, so he groans instead.

Peeking his head over the counter, he strains his vision to see who's there. He makes out the black hair, and instantly realizes it's Mikasa.

"Oh," he bounces up, hurrying around the counter. With a sheepish smile he unlocks the door.

"Eren!" She throws herself against him, pulling him into a spine bending embrace. "Your mom called me—she said she hadn't heard from you—are you okay? Why didn't you call? Have you been here all night? You do know there was a hurricane?"

She's talking a mile a minute; every time he tries to open his mouth she cuts him off.

"I'm okay," he finally blurts softly. He pulls his phone out of his pocket, scanning over his recent calls tab. "Levi and I got stuck here last night. I guess I didn't have service… I didn't get any phone calls."

"Levi?" She peeks over Eren's shoulder. "…Oh, the new guy? He's here?"

"Yeah," the brunet turns back to the counter. Levi is already up, and Eren could laugh when he sees the mess of Levi's hair and a blanket still draped over his shoulders. Levi sticks his hand out from underneath the blanket to wave; his grumpy expression isn't doing him much good.

"Nice to meet you." Mikasa says simply. It's equally as hard to read her, but over the years Eren has become better at it. Her raised brow makes him nervous. Eren knows she's upset he hired someone other than her. He doesn't bring it up, and he's thankful she doesn't either. Instead, she sighs.

"Well, come on, I'm taking you two home," she checks her watch. "My next class is in 30 minutes and I don't have time to spare."

Reluctantly, Eren moves quickly to collect all of their things while Levi tries to organize the mess they'd made last night. After a while he'd given up, and Eren didn't mind, he'd deal with it later.

They were out of the shop in less than 10 minutes, and Mikasa's truck waited, still running at the front of the shop. While Mikasa gets in, Eren stops and opens the back car door. Levi's squeamish behavior hadn't gone unnoticed.

"We can walk, you know," Eren says quietly so Mikasa won't hear. "I don't mind."

Levi shakes his head quietly. He takes only a moment to type.

 _'I'll be okay.'_

Eren doesn't say anymore. He waits for Levi to get in, and shuts the door, only to go around to the other side and get into the backseat with Levi. The ravenet gives him a strange look, but follows it with a slight smile.

"You could have sat in the front with me," Mikasa looks at the rearview mirror for a moment, before looking back to the road and begins driving.

"It's okay." Eren says shortly, smiling when he realizes Levi is staring at him with brows drew together. The brunet simply finds Levi's hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze. It's a start, Eren thinks, and he's proud of Levi.

Levi doesn't let his hand go.

"So a little birdie told me you two have a " _thing_ " going on," Mikasa says—as if it were anyone but Jean.

Horse-face has always had a thing for her despite being with Marco for so long. It's not like Eren blamed him; Mikasa was charming, but she didn't have time for the dating life. Then again, there were rumors circulating between Mikasa and Sasha. No one ever tried to ask the two of them, though. They were too scared to.

Shrugging, Eren opens his mouth to speak, to deny those claims, but his voice snags.

Mikasa is looking at him in the rearview mirror still. It seems like they're at a red light, but that's not what Eren is focused on. He's staring back at Mikasa, mouth still opened, and a breath still drew while his eyes narrow.

He looks at Levi.

The ravenet instinctively looks back.

He forgets her question, and returns to look back at her. Now her brows are knitted, and she's staring at him like he's crazy—maybe he was going crazy. The light turns green, Eren suspects, because she looks back at the road and begins driving again.

But, if he's right, Mikasa and Levi's eyes are the same color.

That means… Levi has grey eyes.

He looks at the ravenet again and he's certain.

 _Grey._

That's hilarious.

All this time…

He could laugh.

In fact, he almost does, but Mikasa interrupts him when the car stops and asks, "Is this it?"

Levi nods, and flashes Eren a quick text that simply says _'Tell her I said thanks'_ before he hops out of the truck. Waving goodbye, Mikasa doesn't wait long until she's driving off, giving Eren little to no time to glance back at Levi, which leads him to sighing sadly before he crawls into the front seat.

"You know I hate when you do that," Mikasa groans.

"Well someone didn't give me a chance to get out," the brunet returns. "Levi said thanks for the ride."

"I didn't hear anything."

Eren says nothing. Instead, his expression falls tiredly, and with hooded eyes he turns to look out of the window instead. As much as he would love to argue for her not to do this, he knows it will get the both of them absolutely nowhere.

If there is one thing he's learned about Mikasa, it's that she has to duke it out with the person she chooses to spite. No one can interfere.

"What have you decided to do for your birthday?" She asks.

"Dunno," he sighs. "I guess have a small get-together like always."

"You don't want to do anything special this year?"

"Not really," he turns to look at her. "Everyone can bring a vodka, make a punch bowl, the usual."

"Are you inviting the new guy?"

"Well… yeah," his brows knit. "He's a friend too."

Mikasa only hums, but Eren is certain he saw her eyes roll. He'd love to blow up—but he wasn't pissed off. He dealt with it instead until the end of the ride.

His birthday was in two days. The only reason he was looking forward to it was another excuse to get off of work for a while.

They pull up shortly after, and Eren quickly thanks her. He's in a rush to avoid her arguments, and she seems to be in a rush to get to school, so it all works out for the both of them.

He fumbles to find his keys, but once he twists the front door knob he realizes it was already unlocked.

"I'm home," the brunet announces louder than needed; his mother is in the living room, her knitting needles in hand and the TV switched onto the weather. She looks up, a relieved smile spread over her face.

"Oh, Mikasa found you, thank God. Where were you?" Despite that smile, her voice is still scolding.

"The shop," he answers. "I was going to leave last night, but the storm hit, so I slept there."

"Oh God, Eren, that's frightening," her hands stall. "That door barely locks—what were you thinking? You should have just called Mikasa, or, or… _something_ , Eren! My _God_."

"It was fine," he laughs, holding his hands up. "I pulled out a TV and some movies… and plus, I wasn't really… alone."

Eren hadn't told her about hiring Levi yet, unsure how she'd really react. The shop was a family shop, and they'd never used direct deposit or checks, it was all done under the table with cash since most friends and family worked only every so often.

When her brows raise and she stops her work completely, Eren sulks his shoulders, swallowing the lump in his throat.

Her look says it all—she doesn't truly have to ask, so Eren gets to explaining.

"I know you didn't want me to hire anyone, but Levi is… he's different."

He opens his mouth to resume that sentence, but his voice catches.

How _does_ he describe Levi?

The ravenet was kind, most definitely, but Eren knew he was an asshole to other people—especially Hanji. It wasn't a cruel kind of attitude either, but a playful one, like he never really meant all of the things he said.

Somehow he always seemed sad, but Eren never had the guts to ask what that was about. It could have just been his face—it was unique, but he always looked like he was frowning.

He didn't even look like he was born on Earth; his face was too sharp, his cheekbones weren't Cruella Deville sharp, but they were subtly keen enough to make his cheeks seem slightly sunken in—not that he was anorexic, or… well, he could be, he was very small and extremely thin. Levi seemed like he could be broken in half like a twig, but Eren had seen numerous times just how much weight the ravenet could carry, and he knew that wasn't true.

Levi's brows weren't _chonga_ thin, but he seemed like he took his time with them, or whoever did his brows—Eren wanted their number. His lips were thin too, but they also weren't. Plump, and small, but only his mouth seemed that tiny. His lips were alluring.

The final diagnostic of Levi was that he was the kind of guy you wanted to fall in love with just to say you did. He was out of Eren's level, and everyone's level, he was completely out of the world. Everything about him was unique, all down to the perfectly manicured nails that Eren were certain Levi must have had done.

Levi kind of looked like an alien.

The brunet lets an ungodly snort break the tense silence, his mother is still watching him expectantly. With a sheepish smile, he clears his throat, and straightens his shoulders again to shrug.

"I'll have to tell you about it over dinner…," he muses. "I'll cook tonight."

She's probably pissed off, despite that curious look still in her eyes. He doesn't give her a chance to ask any more questions before he starts down the hallway, blurting out, "I'm going to get in the shower."

He turns down the hallway before she can ask any more questions.

"Figure out what you want to eat!" He calls over his shoulder. Otherwise he'd have one pissed off mother on his back.

Once he's shut the door behind him he pulls his phone out, his heart skipping a delighted beat to see a message from Levi—which is strange. He's never gotten excited over a person's company like this before. It was almost frightening, but he had to admit he liked the feeling.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[11:07am]** _Thanks for the ride._

 **[11:13am]** _I'll see you tomorrow._

 **[11:14am]** _Think I'm going to catch up on some sleep…_

It was unusual for them to text about anything but work, so Eren was more than excited to reply to Levi's text.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 **[11:42am]** _i just got home(:_

 **[11:42am]** _i'll see you tomorrow. dont oversleep lol_

Setting his phone down, he gets to peeling his shirt off. It feels wet from the humidity; overall he feels disgusting. He turns the faucet on, surprised when his phone chimes again.

He checks it embarrassingly quick.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[11:45am]** _I'm so glad you're not some dumbass with a shitty signature._

 **[11:45am]** _Hanji does… it's so annoying to read at the end of every message._

 **[11:46am]** _#blessed_

 **[11:46am]** _That's not her signature either. I'm truly blessed._

Eren has to hold a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. He's not sure why Levi is telling him this, but he's not complaining. Smiling at his phone, he types slowly to avoid seeming like he'd been waiting for Levi's message.

Even though… Levi did reply pretty fast.

That's cute. Levi was talkative.

That makes Eren raise a brow.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 **[11:48am]** _what is her signature then? :p ill be sure to make one for you_

 **[11:48am]** _im getting in the shower. give me 30 mins_

He's serious when he sets his phone down again, and pulls his socks and pants off, leaving him cold while he adjusts the water.

His seriousness can't last when his phone beeps twice.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[11:50am]** _»-(¯`·.·´¯)- (¯`·._.·(¯`·._.· Hanji Berner taken by the best! ·._.·´¯)·._.·´¯) -(¯`·.·´¯)-«_

 **[11:50am]** _That's it. It's disgusting. And don't. I'll kill you both._

 **[11:51am]** _Oh?_

 **[11:52am]** _Pictures?_

Rolling his eyes, he knows his face is burning from Levi's last message.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 **[11:52am]** _its cute! you're just a grumpy old man_

 **[11:53am]** _are you… serious?_

He can't sit his phone down now. He waits for it to vibrate again.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[11:54am]** _It makes me sick and I wish they would break up so I wouldn't have to look at it anymore._

 **[11:54am]** _I'm like 3 years older than you._

 **[11:55am]** _No. I just remembered you're underage. Keep your jailbait giblets away._

Eren snorts. He can't believe he's about to send the message he's typing.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 **[11:56am]** _oh so you'd want to see my giblets if i weren't underage?_

It barely takes a minute.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[11:57am]** _What the fuck._

 **[11:58am]** _Take your stupid shower._

Pouting, he finds the camera app on his phone—he honestly never uses it—and hurries across the hallway and into his bedroom before his mother can see him. Still in only his boxers, he sits in front of his floor mirror, sitting on his knees.

He looks at himself with flushed cheeks before he lifts his phone up.

Suddenly he feels more insecure than ever—not that he needs to, he knows that. He is thin, but built and has surprised numerous people with his abs. It's nothing impressive, though; the muscle was more or less gained from lugging boxes around the shop all his life.

Exhaling slowly, he holds one hand gently over his abdomen, trying his best to appear dainty as he tilts his head slightly to the right, letting his hair fall over his eyes just barely. He puckers his lips into a slight pout, and half lids his eyes before he's content with what he sees on his screen.

He snaps the photo—it sends.

His heart feels like it might throb into his throat.

Quickly, he gets up and hurries back into the bathroom.

Instantly, he regrets it.

He contemplates sending an apology, but as soon as he opens his phone to do so he receives a message.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[12:05pm]** _Oh._

 **[12:06pm]** _… hm._

 **[12:08pm]** _Not bad._

 **[12:08pm]** _I'm happy to see you keep your room clean._

The brunet snorts; he's turned the water off and sat himself on the edge of the bathtub. He sends a text quick.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 **[12:09pm]** _your turn…_

He doesn't have to look in the mirror to know his face is beet red, he can feel it all the way up to his ears. Chewing on his nails, he watches his phone screen, and after two minutes those three little dots finally pop up.

 **[Levi has sent an attachment]**

"Shit…," he mumbles, the photo keeping his eyes occupied.

Apparently it wasn't just Eren who took people off guard with abs—Levi must have had a fucking 8 pack. Levi was lifting his shirt up, Eren could see that much around the edge of the picture.

The photo was taken so that Eren couldn't see Levi's face, but he saw Levi relaxing on his sofa, his feet propped up and very thin sleeping pants. Eren is certain he can see the outline. That doesn't help his case at all.

Levi's skin looks soft; Eren wishes he knew what hue it was exactly, but at that moment he didn't care much. All he could think about is how badly he'd love to drag his fingertips down the ravenet's stomach.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[12:17pm]** _Good?_

He whimpers, squeezing his thighs together as he types.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 **[12:18pm]** _…good_

It _would_ be wrong—but his groin is radiating heat now. Absently his hand moves on its own, giving a gentle tug on his erection through his boxers. Groaning, he shuts his phone off, setting it down and slips his boxers off finally.

He turns the water back on, getting into the shower.

It's not like he meant to, or frankly wanted to—but he did want to, and has been wanting to—he knew it was wrong morally, to jerk off to a practical stranger without their consent, but somewhere in his attempt to focus on taking his shower his fingers wrapped around his length. It was too fucking hot, it was aching.

Eagerly, he strips himself of the annoying fabric between him and his release. To feel good. That's all he needs. It's been so long.

And fuck how he tries to not think about it, he tries to take his shower in peace, but the itch of constantly wanting to touch himself gets the better of him. Wanting to fuck himself.

Sliding against the wall of the shower until he was sitting, the hot water hitting him in the face; it was unlike him—he opens his mouth, letting the droplets fall on his tongue as well, head against the tiles as he works on stretching himself.

Two fingers, he presses inside of him without giving himself a chance to stretch.

He was a drooling mess all too soon. It was Levi's fault. He was too attractive, too seductive, and Eren was sure Levi had no idea just how wild he drove Eren.

Panting against the walls. With eyes rolled back, he stroked his cock until he felt like his chest was going to swell from all of the pressure he felt at once.

 _Grey._

That color seemed so much brighter than before, so full of life, a living person; Eren was content with the color all around him now. Last night he'd felt Levi's breath against his lips, if only he could have done it—but he'd touched Levi so much. Lavender was all he wanted to breathe in again.

Suddenly he remembers the scarf. He'd taken it from Levi that night.

He wonders if it still smells like him…

He groans in frustration. He wasn't going to come like this. Masturbation wasn't his thing, simply because he'd never been able to come unless someone else did it for him.

But… maybe Levi's scarf would help.

Shutting the water off quickly, he gets out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist and bringing his phone with him. The TV is still on, so he suspects his mother is still occupied—his damn bedroom door doesn't lock, and it's worse she can't walk in and bust through the door. Instead she'll yell for him until he hears her.

Eren never minds that. He has time—he opens Levi's messages again, briefly reading over the last one.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[12:21pm]** _Good._

He scrolls up, grabbing the picture again before he leaves his phone on his bed. Dropping his towel, he finds Levi's scarf on the rack on the back of his door; it was the peach one, with white tie-dye.

Suddenly he feels nervous, almost as if he's invading someone's privacy.

"God," he groans.

Still, he goes through with it, reaching out and taking the scarf before holding it close to his chest.

It still smelled like him.

Lavender, linen and a flattering musk that only makes Eren's knees weak.

Back to his bed, he sets his phone next to his pillow before nurturing his erection again.

With the scarf over the bottom half of his face, he reaches between his thighs again, fingering himself deeper with every stroke becoming harder. Unintentionally Levi's scarf gets caught between his teeth as he gasps for air, letting the dirtiest moans slip into his pillows.

 _"Eren."_

The fabric was soft against his lips, he imagined it was Levi kissing him, whispering into his ear, stroking his cock and fucking his ass—he wishes so badly it were Levi in place of himself.

He couldn't control his moans anymore, but he tried his best to muffle them into his pillow. He was close, and it felt like absolute heaven as he stilled his fingers inside of himself, giving one last squeeze to his cock before his body curled into a fetal position, his fingers slipping out and his come spreading across his bedsheets.

 _"Eren."_

Fuck, he couldn't get the image of Levi's gentle, expecting expression out of his head.

He knows he should have done it.

With his eyes shut tight, he climaxes loudly, smothering his face into his pillow now.

When it's over, he feels more disgusting than before his shower; in every way.

As he tries to calm his breathing, he minimizes out of Levi's picture on his phone. As much as he does enjoy this one, he opens his gallery app, and instead looks over the photo he'd taken of Levi the first day they met.

Smiling, Eren realizes Levi is still just as charming.

This had to be what love felt like…

Closing his eyes, he exhales softly and makes a promise to himself.

 _Tomorrow._

 _Kiss him._

If he doesn't this guilty moment might consume him.


	8. Nobody's Fool

**Authors Note:**

I wanted to put so much more detail in the party but this chapter already hit 5k words and I was starting to get stressed for space. ; ; I don't like making my chapters too long... I'll have to make it up in the next chapters ~

* * *

Work today was leisure, the only thing getting them off of their feet was a minor fender-bender on the curb of the shop. The two had only lingered around momentarily before heading back to work; no one was hurt, but Levi was worried enough to approach the shaken couple; once he was sure they were okay, they headed back. Hardly any customers came in, less than usual, and Levi started to wonder why that was. Eren claimed it was because the season was ending—tourists were heading home, and locals had no reason to visit his shop a second time. Only drifters came through, wandering aimlessly through the shop, creaking the floorboards in the silence. Pictures were taken of neat little knick-knacks, but no one bought anything.

With unfocused eyes, Levi was content with the sounds of Eren huffing out of boredom every so often, while the two of them sat back to back, leaning against one another in their stools. Occupied by browsing Facebook, Levi was taken off guard when Eren's voice stirred. Sitting up, Levi turned to face the pearly grin Eren had.

"'Dunno if you heard; there's a German festival tonight," speaking with a reddened face, emerald eyes flicker around the details of Levi's face, but never really made eye contact. Curious at first to why this is, Levi's question was eased when Eren stuttered out, "I—well, I mean, everyone is going… I thought you would come with me. If—if you want! …that is."

Minimizing Facebook, Levi opens his notepad app and begins typing. Naturally Eren is reading over his shoulder; while that annoyed him, usually, he didn't mind it much with Eren. Personal space was no longer an issue—admittedly he sort of enjoyed Eren being close to him.

 _'Sure,'_ a simple message. _'What kind of event is it?'_

"My mom started the tradition—she makes German chocolate cake, and it's the _best_! Everyone else tries to follow classic German dishes and brings them."

 _'So kind of like a potluck?'_

"Exactly."

 _'Where will it be?'_

"Surfside beach; I can meet you at your place, though. We'll walk there together."

 _'Will your friends be there?'_ More importantly, Levi wanted to know if Jean would be there. Asking that directly doesn't sit well in his gut, so he simply accepts Eren's nod with a forced smile. Changing the topic so not to think about it, he types, _'Do you speak any German?'_

"Not really… my mom uses phrases here and there that I recognize." The brunet shrugs, his eyes wondering as his lips pout—thinking for only mere seconds, another smile creeps onto Eren's face. "There is one phrase I've been learning."

 _'Which is?'_

"Küss mich."

 _That was so cute_ —it takes Levi a minute to register. Emerald eyes are bright and sincere, with cheeks dusted pink and wrinkles under his eyes from a wide grin. Yet Levi's stifling laughter at how ridiculous the unexpected phrase sounded coming out of Eren's mouth. With a cocked smile, however, he types, _'What does that mean?'_

"I'll tell you tonight," excitedly, he hops off of his stool. "You should get home and get ready. I'll close up shop. The event starts around 6pm, so that gives us 3 hours to get ready."

There was no room to protest. Eren wouldn't let him. Practically forced him out of the shop, insisting they didn't have much time left to get ready (as if 3 hours isn't enough for the brat). Nevertheless, Levi throws his hands up, and leaves after nearly 40 minutes of bickering. Wasn't fair to let Eren close the shop alone so soon.

He felt bad about it, but reluctantly headed back home, expecting to be alone.

Wrong. So wrong. Opening the door, he's greeted with a light on in Hanji's bedroom. Rolling his eyes, he's almost tempted to kick Hanji out of his house after what they did.

"Levi? Is that you?" A male voice calls from Hanji's bedroom. His first guess is Moblit, but it was deeper, unique. Squinting his eyes at the hallway, his heart skips a beat and a half when a head of blond peaks out from Hanji's room.

"Is that Levi?" That voice sounds so familiar. A woman. Someone he hadn't heard in forever.

"I sure as hell hope so!" That was definitely Hanji. She comes strutting out, the two figures behind her. With their stupid, lame pearly grin they sashay to the kitchen. "If it weren't then we'd be getting robbed."

First instinct is to grab his phone. Text. Don't speak.

But… he wanted to.

That was weird.

"Wow," was the lame breath to escape Levi, his fingers twitched against his phone in his pocket. He pressed through the feeling. He hated his voice now. It was revolting. Used to be nice, he could sing in the car with these people, dance drunkenly and scream at anyone who got in his way. Now, it sounded like there was a lump he always couldn't swallow. Now, it hurt to scream, and his voice was too weak to use for too long.

"I can't believe it." The man, the broad shouldered son of a bitch standing with his arms crossed, baby blue eyes hooded with that snarky smile as per usual. Erwin Smith. His best friend... or at least, used to be. Before the accident. "After all this time, you haven't grown a God damn inch."

He ignored the comment for the sake of the petite woman behind him, dainty as ever. She looked best with flowers in her hair and a white sun dress with red wine stains on the collar. In a field of sunflowers is where Levi remembers her best, it was their spot, the place they would go, always touching but never making the move. Petra Ral. His first love, so he thought.

When she linked her arm through Erwin's, he caught the glance of those matching wedding rings.

He really had missed a lot.

Still had no idea why Hanji was here, but he ignored them rummaging through the kitchen now.

"Where'd you come from?" Hanji's voice is so God damn shrill, it almost makes him cringe.

"I was at work."

"Ohhh, I didn't tell you two, Levi has the hots for his underage boss," when Hanji returns to the living room they wiggle their brows, a slice of cheese between their teeth. Gross.

"He's not underage... for much longer." Levi hisses. That wasn't exactly the best impression to make on old friends. Still, he didn't deny the claims.

"Ehh, it's about time you got out anyway," Hanji shrugs.

"I was only 16 when Erwin and I got together… and he was… hm… 19, I think," Petra mutters quietly, Levi thanks her mentally—hope she can read minds. Shrugging as well, she smiles. "Whatever makes you happy and doesn't break the law, right?"

"Right." As much as he would like to make time for his old friends, he's got a new life to worry about; refusing to stall his life for them again, he checks the time on his phone before glancing up. "I'm going to a festival tonight I have to get ready for. How long will you two be in town?"

"Just the weekend." Answers Erwin. "We are, too, actually. The German festival on the beach?"

 _Shit._

"Oh, good," he forces his voice light.

"Hey," Hanji points their waxy finger his way, eyes narrowed behind clunky glasses. Smiling eerily, Hanji rubs at their chin. "You're not wearing a scarf."

"Calm down, Sherlock." Grumbling, Erwin and Petra make way for him to get to his room.

The idea of getting ready usually includes changing, which includes nudity, which Petra can't seem to grasp is best to be alone for. Doesn't stop her from following him into his bedroom, blantly shutting the door even though Erwin is standing right there. All he can do is stare at her with one brow raised.

"Some people don't like that, you know." His throat is starting to hurt. Wishes they would let him be for a minute or two. "I need to change."

"Pretend I'm not here!" She chirps. Her hands speak for her most of the time, waving and clasping together as she speaks. A stranger would probably think she does drugs. It was just her. She was strange. Giggling cutely, she covers her mouth. "Not like I haven't seen you naked anyway—remember the spa thing? Your towel dropped!"

"Yeah…," smiling (cringing) out of pure pity (it was more like a toothy snarl), he heads to his closet and shuffles through the clothing. Pretend she's not here. That was easier said than done.

"How have you been? Are you really dating again?"

"Trying to." Voice cracks. He clears his throat.

"Good," playing with her fingers, she nods slowly, smile fading. Sucking in a deep breath, she almost scares Levi once she squeals. "So! I mean… like, is it anything serious?"

She was tormenting him with all of this talking. He misses Eren. He never made him talk this much. Wishes she would just let him text, but she cutely claims that speaking is good for him, and she won't be an enabler to his "bad habit". She means well… but God damn, she pisses him off.

"I don't know." Trying to occupy himself with his selection, he finds an old, clean white v-neck t-shirt that he considers. Bland. It suited how he felt right about now. It was going to be on the beach… means he needed a jacket, or a sweater. Since he didn't own any jackets, he went with the latter.

"Okay, okay," she singsongs. "I'll leave you alone. See you tonight, though, right?"

"Maybe."

"For sure." Correcting him happily, she tucks her hands behind her back before spinning the other way.

He sighs a breath of relief when his bedroom door shuts. It's just him alone. That was strange, even for Petra. Hopes she's not up to something again, definitely hopes she won't make an appearance tonight.

Doesn't help the fact she's still in his living room. Why the hell did Hanji let them in? Swore he took the key away from them.

For a second he almost feels guilty. In fact, he stares at the door, sighing once before shaking his head. There was no reason to feel guilty. Wasn't like they were friends anymore. Friends speak once and a while to each other, hadn't talked to them in almost 3 years now.

Concentrating on his outfit, he settles with a dark red sweater that has always exposed his collarbones, dips low and hangs loosely to his mid-thigh. An old pair of faded skinny jeans with a tear in the right knee is placed beside it. He'll decide on the shoes later. A shower is calling his name.

He showered long and slow, making sure to clean himself spotless and make himself presentable. Not like he needed it, but tonight, it almost seemed like it could be a date. It would be one of the first times truly being alone with Eren.

 _Was this a date?_

When he dresses himself, he feels content enough not to do much else. Deodorant, perfume, dry shampoo—even though he just washed it twice. It smelled good. Like lavender.

By the time he checked his clock again he had only 40 more minutes, and he spent 20 hiding in the bathroom. For the last 20, he sucked it up and headed into the living room where Petra was sitting in Erwin's lap and Hanji was sitting across from them.

They hadn't noticed him, so he steps between their conversation, and sits in the lounge chair alone and away from all three of them.

Speaking is the last thing he wanted to do, but he pushed through it. Since he was probably going to have to talk a few times tonight, he spoke extra quiet.

It wasn't an interesting conversation. Hanji forced him to talk a bit about Eren. Didn't tell them much, besides he thought this might end well tonight. Erwin thought he meant sex. Made him cringe to correct him.

Petra bragged about Erwin's promotion. He was a shitty salesman. No one really liked those guys, but they made a lot of money. Erwin spoke for Petra about her painting class taking off, and she was going to become a director at a museum.

So boring. As always.

While he hates to admit it, but he never really missed them.

Thankfully, soon after there was a knock at the door, and a confirming text from Eren to let Levi know he was here. Brows furrowed, he begins to get up, but Hanji is already steps ahead of him. Inwardly, he groans; externally, he buries his face in his hands, takes a deep breath and prays they won't fuck this up.

"Oh! Levi, it's your boyfriend!"

Levi Ackerman has concluded there is no God.

Eren is ushered inside, emerald eyes scanning the room frantically to find Levi's face, but it falls over everyone else's first. Erwin, who gets up to shake his hand— _not weird at all, asshole_ —Petra, innocent as ever smiles sweetly, might as well be a ballerina as she drifts from across the room to shake his hand, proclaim how excited she is for Levi to meet someone besides her, and sit back down like nothing had happened.

He hated all of them.

"Uhm," the brunet fidgets sheepishly in the center of the room. In his hands he's twisting the life out of Levi's familiar scarf. Eren's eyes follow Levi's before he stammers, "Oh, y…yeah. I brought your scarf back."

For a moment he gawks. Eren is extending it towards him, he should take it, but for a moment he can't take his eyes off of the brunet. Hair slicked back neatly, cheeks red from the slight chill outside, a beige turtle neck that somehow, no matter how chaste, seems sexy. It gives Levi a good idea of just how thin Eren is—the photo Eren had sent didn't do justice.

When he comes to, he takes it back with a slight smile. Standing up, he ties it lazily around his neck before sighing. In less than a minute Petra is at his throat—literally—fixing it for him, tying it quickly with a gentle, "There."

"See you later." Levi simply mutters.

 _Weird._

He's thankful when they're heading out of the door. Both of them ignore the childish comments coming from the trio—what the hell was their problem? Pissed him off, needless to say.

They were down the stairs when Eren finally spoke.

"So…," Eren began quietly, scoffing. "Was that the guy from that… prom picture?"

Surprised he remembers that. Levi is thrown off by Eren's crooked, seemingly forced smile. Eren won't look at him, so he hums. Eren looks up in time to see Levi nodding, before Eren mutters a soft "oh".

"So, like," the brunet laughs. "The girl was your ex, too?"

Damn Petra.

"Mm, no." Levi answers, typing the rest on his phone, _'I haven't dated either of them. Those two are married. Once upon a time, though… yeah, I kind of wanted to be with her. In college maybe.'_

"Ohh," he chimes, eyes returning to the ground. "And… you talk around them? Like… I dunno. You know? Never mind… they're your close friends, of course you do."

Thin brows knit together, their eyes meet as their pace slows. When Eren tries to smile again, Levi understands the feelings the brunet has. He stops walking, focuses on typing.

 _'Eren,'_ the text begins, rolling his eyes as he types, admittedly he wants to laugh at the childish behavior _. 'You're a good friend to me, too. I talk with them because they don't have the patience to deal with this. The texting. You do.'_

"So…"

 _'So shut up!'_ Levi snorts behind his phone, a smirk lifting one corner of his lips. _'I appreciate you far more for dealing with my shit.'_

That seems to leave Eren content with a slight flush to his cheeks. If Eren is happy with it, then so is Levi.

The conversation dies for only a minute.

"Wait—you went to college? What for?"

 _'Have some faith in me, yes, I went to college,_ ' the raven scoffs. _'I wanted to major in Criminal Justice and work alongside Isabel and Farlan, but when the accident happened, we all kind of had to drop out.'_

"Drop out? Why?"

Good question. Thinking it over, Levi tries not to let the memories flood back all at once, but even considering the topic makes him cringe.

 _'Life-long injuries,'_ he types. _'Isabel lost her head, went on depression pills left and right. Farlan lost the ability to walk. Haven't seen them in years. Maybe they're better. I don't know.'_

Doesn't know why he's spilling his guts so easily to Eren all the time now. Must have been because the kid really had no one else to tell, or Levi was just too stubborn to admit he liked Eren.

"Hey, we don't have to talk about it," Eren empathized, and Levi was thankful. "What made you want to go into Criminal Justice?"

 _'There was a murderer in California, never solved their case, they just called him the Colossal murderer. Ticked me off… I wanted to work on the case. It wasn't realistic in the least bit. By the time I graduated the case would be closed anyway. But still.'_ Levi shrugs when Eren nods, signaling he's done reading. _'There was on case. Killed a young girl. Left her in a water tank. Never got it out of my mind.'_

"That's sick," Eren grimaces.

As much as Levi would love to get heated and passionate about his dreams, they're already passing the shop, and it seems extremely strange to walk past it. Feels like if he were to look inside he would see a clone of himself and Eren.

Changing the subject, Levi directs the conversation to Eren, _'What were you going to go to college for?'_

"I don't even know…," Eren groans. "I thought about being a medic, then the military, then both. I've never been able to do what I want to do… so I don't know what I want to do."

 _'Maybe you should start worrying less about others and more about yourself._ ' It reads. _'Start doing what you want to do. Fuck what other people think about it.'_

"I'm… in the process," he chuckles.

Had the conversation of lasted, Levi would have asked all these nagging questions in his head about Eren. But the sign of the beach was in view, and it seemed like some of Eren's friends were waiting for him. Had no idea who they were, a lanky, brunette girl and a little blonde one. Levi waited patiently while they chatted, until Eren finally introduced them.

"Ymir, Krista, this is Levi." Had no idea which one was which. Eren didn't point. The brunette one wiggles her brows—Levi almost rolls his eyes. Eren interrupts whatever made her open her mouth with a playfully scolding tone. "My new employee."

"Sure, sure," the brunette one waves it off.

"Ymir," the blonde one groans. So now he knows who is who. "Anyway, we're all camped out with a fire going. Connie brought some Fireball and we're mixing it with lemonade… it's pretty nasty."

Ah, right, Levi almost forgot. Eren's friends would be a group of underage, rebellious teenagers.

Their conversation resumed for a few more minutes, enough time for Levi to zone out and scan the crowd of people and lines of food on the beach. Loud music, loud people. The sun was beginning to set behind the mass of people, the sky was a bright pink and orange. It was nice.

He didn't even notice the conversation was complete until Eren grabbed his wrist.

"Coming?"

There was something mesmerizing about having Eren guide him, hand in hand with the salty wind chilling his skin. Something about the way the colors of the sky painted so well on chocolate hair, the way large sapphire eyes reflected the sunlight. Something about the quietness between them, warm hands, gentle brushes between their fingertips.

It wasn't ruined, but it hadn't been kept preserved either. Eren led him to a group of 6 people, all around a warm bonfire. Some of them were roasting marshmallows, some had red cups in their hands. All of them were laughing when the four of them walked up.

"About time you showed up," Sasha was one of those people. It was strange to see her in casual clothing, but stranger to see her in a white spaghetti strap despite the cold, constant breeze.

"It's not like I'm late," Eren scoffs. They're all sitting in fold-up chairs. Ymir and Krista return to theirs, and two more are pulled up by Marco. Of course he's accompanied with Jean. Levi's curiosity had been answered.

"Hey! Happy almost birthday!" One of them, a bald one shouts out, holding up his cup. Everyone else cheers weakly. "Someone get the birthday boy a drink!"

Shit. That's right. Eren's birthday was coming up. When the hell was it?

"Mikasa told us you just wanna do the usual," Marco is pouring Eren a drink. "Where at and what time? I'm gonna have to call in."

"Oh—uh, I dunno…" Eren's voice falters. Did Marco make him nervous? Levi only watched out of the corner of his eye as the two of them spoke. He took his seat, and waited for Eren to do the same. "I guess around noon. My place."

"Tomorrow, right?" A girl asks, she's blonde, and has the most preserved resting bitch face Levi has ever seen.

"Yeah."

Eren's birthday was tomorrow? Fuck! Levi hadn't gotten him a thing. _Shit_.

"Levi, do you want a drink?" Marco asks.

Shaking his head, he smiles slightly. Marco doesn't pressure him, and instead sits back down.

"So… where is Armin?" Chuckling lightly, Eren's smile looks forced.

 _Ah_ , there it was, that look that Levi knew all too well. The feeling of having someone loved so dearly to despise you. That feeling was all too familiar. He wishes Eren didn't have to feel it, but when the group shrugs, Eren takes a drink and sighs. The poor kid. There was nothing Levi could do for Eren besides let him learn on his own. Didn't stop him from rubbing small circles on the small of the brunet's back. Besides a weak smile, it went ignored.

Eren wouldn't feel better until he was drunk.

Levi knew that, too.

The rest of the evening was filled with chatter from everyone except Levi, who idly browsed on his phone, took a couple of pictures of the ocean, got a good one of Eren. Midway through a laugh Levi snapped the photo almost unintentionally. Actually he just wanted a picture of the two seagulls going at it behind the brunet.

Needless to say, Levi was satisfied with his photo. Eren had his hand up to cover his mouth, but from Levi's angle he still got a full view of that smile, eyes closed tight with laughter.

It took him 20 minutes of debating. Eventually he had made it his phone's background.

The only standoff thing to happen was Ymir telling him he looked familiar. Never has he liked hearing that, but there was no further investigation in it, and it was forgotten quickly.

Admittedly he did laugh at some of the jokes Eren's friends were cracking. They were all wasted off of their ass. Thankfully Eren had cut himself off after his second drink, and as the sun was setting had sobered up enough for the two of them to venture around the event.

Levi tried the chocolate cake Eren went on about. It was too sweet for him. Eren had a smudge of frosting on his bottom lip, making it ever so tempting to lean in and steal that God forsaken kiss finally.

No matter how daft Eren might have thought he was, Levi knew.

The only thing was Levi didn't know how to tell Eren he wanted it, too.

He only wiped it away with his thumb, smiling as Eren wiped his mouth sheepishly.

Later in the night, when the moon was hanging over the beach, reflecting moonlight against the gentle waves, the two of them had walked along the shoreline. Eren's mom made an appearance, and while Eren introduced the two of them, Levi wishes it were anymore eventful. But it was just as simple as that. She was on a man's back—Eren said his name was Hannes—and excited to see Eren out. Told him to get home safe, let her know if he's staying the night somewhere, and ushered this Hannes fellow to take her back to her wheelchair, who happily, and drunkenly, complied.

She seemed nice. Levi liked her.

Afterwards it was just the two of them. The crowd was starting to disperse but all of Eren's friends stayed behind at their camp fire. Smelled like someone brought pot. Didn't check to see who. Frankly, he didn't care what Eren's friends did, as long as Eren was in good hands.

Somewhere in their walk they had caught glimpse of dolphins—a rare sight for Levi, but as a local, Eren was far too used to it. He almost seemed surprised that Levi wanted to stop and watch them dance around the horizon.

It was then that they sat themselves on the bare sand, a plate of snacks in hand, complete silence between the two of them. While the silence was enjoyed, Levi couldn't help but to pull his phone out—hide the fact he had stupidly (seriously, why did he think it was a good idea?) made Eren his background without asking.

Luckily for him Eren hadn't noticed.

He pulled up his notepad.

 _'You said you'd tell me something earlier.'_ He hands Eren his phone to let the brunet read it. Levi has finished his plate of German treats and slips it underneath Eren's plate. When Eren is done reading, he hands Levi his phone back.

"I did." He's sipping on something called a Vitamalz. Eren said it was a beer without the alcohol. Levi didn't understand the point. "I was thinking about saving it for my birthday."

 _'Right. The birthday you failed to mention to me,'_ Levi rolls his eyes. _'What do you want for that?'_

When Eren is done with his plate as well it's set aside, and with his now free hands he turns to face Levi. Instinctively, the ravenet turns as well. Eren starts at the base of Levi's scarf, but lets the soft fabric slip between his fingers until he's rubbing designs at the end of it.

"You really wanna know what I want?" Eren asks cutely. Levi only nods. It looks like a smirk is almost tugging at Eren's lips before he takes Levi off guard yet again. " _Ein kuss_."

Still cute.

 _'I still don't know what the hell that means.'_

Since Eren is playing with his clothes, Levi plays with the end of Eren's sleeve with his free hand, almost to keep the brunet's hand there.

"No, earlier I told you küss mich. Now I'm telling you ein kuss." He says as-a-matter-of-factly. Letting go of Levi's scarf, Eren instead drags his fingertips against Levi's palm.

 _'Oh, excuse me princess.'_ Clicking his tongue, Levi finishes his text with his free hand. _'Tell me what it means.'_

Laughter only lasts for a few seconds until Eren's smile falters. Since his eyes are focused on their hands, Levi decides to look down as well, watching as Eren grazes the details of Levi's palm. When Levi sets his phone down, Eren takes the other half as well, shamelessly, delicately teasing his fingertips between Levi's fingers.

Eren turns both of Levi's hands over. Gently, Eren's fingers slip through Levi's until their intertwined. Levi's heartrate picks up again.

"Levi…," quietly, his voice drifts through the gentle breeze, silver meets jade, and Eren repeats himself after a visible swallow. " _Küss mich_."

Twenty-one years of being on this Earth Levi Ackerman had never spoke, heard or even acknowledged a lick of German, and somehow it feels like the words hung in perfect English around his face. Deeply, he inhaled, eyes widening and chest tightening as the words began to make sense.

"Say it again… in English." A whisper escapes his lips; thankfully under such dim lights Eren can't see the bright pink beginning to flush Levi's cheeks. Of course he knows what Eren has said, context clues have solved that for him, but he wants to hear it—wants to know that Eren wants him, too.

It takes Eren a few seconds to recollect himself.

The longest seconds of his life.

"… Kiss me, Levi…," voice softer than Levi's, those wide eyes come to a close as he exhales softly. "I want you to be my first kiss… no one else."

Even though he knew, it takes him off guard. Had he been standing he might have lost his balance, but instead his head spins for a split second, and he has to remind himself to breathe.

"Why?" It was like a craving—the way these words were making his blood boil until his face burned, his heart beat faster until it felt like it would beat right out of his chest. He couldn't take his eyes off of the brunet, didn't want to, had no reason to. Eren was beautiful, to finally admit that to himself felt like a weight off of his shoulders—he had fallen in love with Eren, no amount of denial could change his mind anymore.

"W…Why?" Breathing carefully, slowly, shaky, Eren opens his mouth repeatedly with nothing to say. Emerald eyes flutter, looking everywhere but at Levi now as he desperately grasps for the strength to find the right words. Levi almost regrets tormenting Eren, the brunet interrupts his thought process with slow words. "The night we went to your moms for dinner, I realized… I realized I really want to… protect you. I mean… protect? Shit. That's not the right word…"

 _Cute. So cute._

Patiently, Levi waits what feels like minutes of silence; it almost makes him want to just tell the brunet it's okay, he wasn't serious, just wanted to mess with him, but the passion in Eren's eyes as he searches for something to say absolutely intrigues Levi.

"I like getting coffee with you every morning—I, I—I really like waking up and seeing you. We've only known each other for a month now… but I feel like I've known you for years…," eyes meeting again, Levi definitely feels guilty for making the brunet spill his guts out now. "I like hearing your voice. I like _you_. I don't know how relationship things work… I _know_ I'm unstable… but I don't want to lose you. Ever."

Never has Eren given Levi a reason to think he's unstable, but he doesn't interrupt the teen to correct him.

Suddenly Eren stops talking, instead he removes one hand and pulls out his phone. Smiling, he flashes it to Levi.

"It's midnight in 2 minutes," the brunet keened. "I won't be jailbait anymore."

Levi could laugh—after that entire speech, that's what Eren had chosen to end it with? As if that even mattered by this point. For some reason Levi checks his own phone, as if he truly gave a fuck about the time. One thing was on his mind.

"Eren…," the blissful look to come over the brunet's face makes Levi's skin crawl; Eren makes it worth speaking. Even knowing his pronunciation is way off, he swallows his pride and separates his lips, speaking slowly with Eren's eyes on him—feels like the entire world is staring at him, like this is something that will go down in history. With all of the confidence he can muster, he repeats Eren's words. "Küss… mich."

Didn't even know the kid's last name yet. Didn't even care.

Visibly Eren tenses, even though the moon had been shaved away by clouds almost so much that Levi couldn't make out anything but Eren's silhouette anymore; the fire behind them still reflected in his wide eyes. At that moment it felt as though the world had stood still—the laughter, the chatter, the drunken idiots on the rest of the beach seem to have been deafened. Even the waves, the winds, the seagulls, everything had disappeared. The world behind Eren had darkened, Levi could only focus on faery pool eyes glimmering as the moonlight made its reappearance.

Eren's first kiss. That was funny.

Eren was the first to come closer, slowly, in jerking movements as he scooted closer on his knees until their knees were together. It was Levi to take Eren's hand again carefully, eyes occupied on them to avoid holding this eye contact. The situation finally dawned on Levi; his hands felt sweaty now, his mouth felt dry, he couldn't keep himself from shivering from excitement—maybe nervousness. Never feeling these emotions before, he wasn't sure, all he knew is he wanted to kiss Eren.

It wasn't just Eren's first kiss. Never had Levi thought he would even have his first kiss, but here he was wanting it more than ever.

"Think it's midnight yet?" Eren asks, a sheepish smile follows with a forced laugh. The brunet's voice sounded so odd when it's all Levi could hear. No background noise. No interruptions. Just him. Almost sounded like a dream.

 _Just shut up and kiss me already._

That's all he wants to say. But doesn't.

When he looks back up, all he can focus on is Eren's lips. With eyes hooded, nodding slowly, uncaring, Levi only muses a simple, "Yeah."

Wonder what he tastes like, feels like, moves like, sounds like. There was only one way to find out.

The smile Eren wore had turned into his bottom lip between his teeth, eyes flickering from Levi's eyes to lips before finally settling for the latter. Levi is glad it went slow. He had no idea which side to adjust his head to, when to move in, how to go through with it.

Mutually they closed the distance, painfully slow. Unsure of who's heartbeat was who's, they were both beating so loudly. Eren's fingers clenched tight around Levi's until here was finally only a sliver between their lips. Levi watched as Eren closed his eyes, but kept his open only enough to admire the view; Eren was beautiful up close. Like some kind of woodland nymph. He looked magical. It was indescribable, and yet it felt as though he could write a book about Eren.

Once their lips touched, his eyes instinctively closed, it felt as if electricity had shot through his entire body, his body felt cold all of a sudden, feels as though his heart stopped, his fingertips felt numb. His grasp tightening as their fingers linked, palms pressed together as Eren's lips pressed gently against Levi's bottom lip. Wishes the kiss was perfect, but it wasn't; both of them were breathing heavy, or not at all, there was no in between. Their lips were dry, it lasted too long—longer than it usually did in movies, Levi assumes, before they pulled away, laughing instinctively at the swell of happiness bubbling in their chests. Taking one quick look at one another, they met again for another gentle, chaste kiss.

No, it wasn't perfect, but it was them, and that's all that Levi needed.

This was it.

This was his first kiss.

This was his history.

Eren tasted sweet, like chocolate, smelled like cake, too. No idea what else he'd expected.

One head-rush later and it feels like the world has spun back into place, right where it left off. Crashing waves deafened Levi, the chatter, the laughter, he had come back to reality with Eren's cocked grin mesmerizing him. The brunet is giggling, his hands leaving Levi's only so that he can cling to Levi's forearms and pull himself until his face is being buried in Levi's neck.

Warm arms wrap around Levi's neck and a cold nose presses against his jaw.

Happily, he returned the embrace, fingers tangling in chocolate hair as he smiled into Eren's shoulder.

* * *

 **End Note:**

(I'm going to start following the tag **fic: candy mouth** on tumblr!)

(How was my Isabel pun btw wink wonk)

Anyway! I was so excited for this chapter! oh no ~

I have never been so cheesy. I had to post this ASAP because I've just been so excited. I actually made myself a bit nausious from staring at my computer all day typing this up. Around the Erwin and Petra scene is where I had to lay down for a bit and it threw me off ; ;

Now that the intermission is over I'm excited for the next chapters breakdown. This chapter wore me out tbh ;´ ｀

(add my snapchat shinjifag ~)

i worked on this chapter for 3 days straight.. aah. now i'm off to binge play Let it Die. I think I deserved it.. （´・｀ ）


	9. Raspberry Vodka

I didn't really like this chapter. I don't know why it was so hard to write. Blah

I'm going back to Seattle on the 16th, so I wanted to update beforehand since I'm starting to get more essays and exams in my classes. (English right now... not working. To put it short I'm just busy.) Just like last year (I mentioned on UYH) I'm going to see my best friend and it's really all I can think about as of late. So writing has been at the bottom of my list sadly. ; ; I'm excited I'll also get to meet a Tumblr friend in Seattle too (yay for online friendships bc i'm so lazy)

I don't really have any other updates. I've been party hopping and made a lot of new friends, so I've been busy with that to keep myself occupied. I started smoking again, eugh.

I can't even type updates right. I need inspiration asudfh I hope next chapter I can do better

I will see you all after my trip and hopefully come home with some inspiration ~ thank you all for your patience u u I'll start replying to comments better

* * *

Rolling waves, the ocean breeze, the sound of Levi's soft breathing—where did those things go? Eren wanted to open his eyes, but it was bright, they squeezed shut harder instead as he raises hands over his face. An obnoxious grinding had replaced all the sounds he'd fallen asleep to—then again, he hadn't even recalled falling asleep. This made him finally open his eyes, wincing when bright sunlight shines in his face.

He was sitting upright, in a chair, it didn't take him long to find the source of the noise. Clanging, banging, grinding—annoying. Sasha. He was in her shop, shirt folded on the table and a bottle of water in front of him. His head was pounding. A hangover, though he doesn't recall drinking that much.

Slowly, he gets up, groaning with every crack his body makes. Taking the water, he sips it as he drifts across the shop.

"Morning, birthday boy!" She turns the coffee grinder off, grin on her face. "How ya' feeling?"

Still sipping on the water, he grunts, "Mmph."

"Bad mmph or good mmph?"

" _Mmph_."

"Bad." She laughs. "Yeah, we had to make sure you were breathing! Do you even remember?"

"Mm-mm." This water had to be holy, he couldn't take his mouth off of it.

Coming around the corner with trays in hand, Connie must have overheard the conversation. "Man, you finished a whole bottle of some bottom shelf shit."

"When it hit midnight we all had a celebratory shot for your birthday," the two of them are laughing now. He finally stops drinking. "Guess one shot wasn't enough. You were out like a light."

"Oh, God," he groans, voice rasp. Closing his eyes, he asks, "Did Levi see?"

"He left early," Connie shrugs. "He made sure you were in good hands."

"You didn't make a total ass out of yourself," Sasha rolls her eyes, propping her elbows onto the counter. "Don't worry. I'm sure he's already texted you."

"Time?"

"Oh," she checks her watch. "About ten after noon."

"Noon?! You're fucking kidding me."

"'Fraid not."

"God, damn it, shit," he feels his pockets for his phone, announcing irately, "My phone is fucking dead."

"Wanna use mine?" She asks, and after a few moments of thinking it over, he agrees. Wiping her hands on her apron, she finds her cell, and chirps happily, "Oh! Speak of the devil, actually. He texted me about an hour ago."

"What'd he say?" He almost sounds too eager.

"Hmm," she reads it off, "'Is Eren okay? I tried calling him. What is the address to the party?' Wanna reply or want me to ignore it?"

"Just… tell him I'm on the way home and my phone is dead." He shrugs.

More or less it's worrisome to linger over the thought of what Levi might have seen out of Eren, knowing damn well he's not a pretty drunk. Sometimes he can get mean, or worse, horny, and… shit, that reminds him. The kiss.

"Shit." He groans again, his hands clasping together desperately. "Please tell me I didn't try to fuck him or something."

"Mmm," she purses her lips, brows knitting. "Can't say you weren't weird, sugar. Sorry."

"Fuuuck…," he lowers his head to the counter slowly, mumbling into the wood. "What did I do…?"

"Well!" Connie snorts. "Marco said something to Levi and you told Marco to mind his own boyfriend."

Flabbergasted, he lifts his head, a distorted expression on his face. " _Why_ did I say that?"

"Have no idea, man. You were crazy possessive; I'll tell you that much."

"Oh! And then Ymir tried talking to Levi—that was actually weird, I don't blame you… anyway, she tried pulling him to the side, so you just cried for Levi to come back."

"It was pretty gross." Connie laughs.

"It was cute…," Sasha says through a forced smile. When their eyes meet, she stifles it, nodding. "Yeah, no, it was pretty nasty."

"At least you didn't puke."

"No… you did puke." Sasha corrects Connie. "But it was after Levi left, so, you know."

"Oh, right."

"Hey, don't worry about it—I fucked up, too," Connie shrugs, propping himself onto the counter. "I owe Ymir 50-bucks."

"Why?" Eren asks.

"She said y'all would hook up. I said you wouldn't."

"Shut up." The brunet grumbles into his hands. It was embarrassing. The one night he wanted to make a solid impression on Levi, and he fucked it up and ran him off early. Sighing heavily, he pushes himself away from the counter. "I'm going to go home and get ready for the stupid party."

"Gonna drink?" Connie calls, snickering as Eren is walking back to his folded shirt.

"No." Deadpanned, he pulls his shirt over his head. It reeks like booze, vomit and sweat. He hopes the stickiness of it is just from the beach.

Collecting all of his things, he bids his farewell quickly. Even more so embarrassing than last night was his attempt to speed walk home with his dead phone in hand, hoping for some kind of miracle it'd come back to life.

Didn't happen, but he did get home quickly, grumbling something at his mom quickly, and not even bothering to change his shirt before he was running to his bedroom and plugging his phone up to a charger. Sitting on his bed, he waits for 1% to pop up before turning on his phone.

Felt like forever waiting. Damn Androids.

He strips his shirt off, might as well multitask.

Finally it comes on, and he sits back down.

Wait for connection.

Everything loads.

His phone vibrates like crazy. Notifications pop up everywhere, some wishing happy birthday, some wondering if he was okay. Levi's name popped up in the mass of those notifications, and he clicks it.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 **[7:10am]** _Hey. Sorry. I got tired and left._

 **[8:01am]** _Are you alright? You were pretty toasted._

 **[9:54am]** _Hey. So… everything okay?_

 **[10:32am]** _I got the address from Marco. Hope that's okay. I don't know if you're… okay? Did I do something wrong?_

 **[10:43am]** _I'm gonna swing by. Just checking in. Everyone was worried you stopped breathing last night. So… I'm on the way._

 **[10:59am]** _I didn't know you weren't home. Sorry. Your mom invited me in, though. She's worried about you, too. Sasha isn't answering me. Call me?_

 **[11:12am]** _Eren._

 **[11:16am]** _You're really worrying your mom._

 **[11:22am]** _And me._

 **[12:12pm]** _Sasha finally texted me back. Glad you're okay._

 **[12:13pm]** _I'm helping your mom with a cake… how did I get sucked into this?_

 **[12:15pm]** _Apparently the cake was a surprise. Don't tell on me._

The horror floods over him all at once. A new message bleeped.

 **[12:29pm]** _Uh?_

"Oh my God." Setting his phone down, he bolts across the room, swinging the door open. There, confused, staring at him with the blankest stare is Levi fucking Ackerman, of course—out of the trillions of things that could be in his living room, it's him.

For whatever reason seemed best—mostly to avoid anything slipping out of his moms mouth—he stretches out of his room, taking a hold of the ravenet's wrist and drags him into his bedroom.

"Sorry—I read your texts so late, and I… I didn't mean to make you come here." Rubbing his eyes, he keeps his palms over his face, groaning into them.

More importantly, he wonders what his mom has told him. There were a few things Levi shouldn't know, especially the color blindness, or blindness in general. Jean worried him. Of course, he stopped seeing Jean, but that doesn't mean his mom wouldn't mention him. The last thing he wanted to do was run Levi off now.

Especially after their kiss.

It was the first time the memory really hit him since last night. His heartbeat deepens.

Though he was blinded by his hands, he knew it was Levi to move them away from his face. Without time to process it, he feels the gentle touch from last night again; Levi's lips on his. A bittersweet, short kiss that Levi had stood on his tippy-toes for. As if Levi didn't melt his heart enough, he wants to rewind. See that again. Break every scene apart and print it. Hang it on his wall and cherish it for eternity.

"Scared me." The ravenet whispers. "That's all."

Instinctively he leans in again, disappointed when a hand covers his mouth.

"You smell terrible."

"Sorry. I know." Eren whimpers, rolling his eyes shut in protest. Nevertheless he nuzzles his forehead against Levi's, his arms wrapping around the ravenet's waist lazily. He really was short. Never noticed just how short he was until now.

Expecting another protest, he's surprised when Levi returns the embrace, allowing Eren to rest his head against Levi's shoulder. A soft chuckle tickles Eren's bare chest.

"Your mom said she's leaving tonight," Levi mutters. "So she wanted to bake you a cake. Don't tell her I told you."

"Has anyone else been over?"

"No."

"We should get ready then," relieved, Eren sighs. It didn't seem like Levi knew of anything. "We've only got about 40 minutes before everyone shows up."

"You should shower. I'll finish helping your mom."

Hearing Levi speak was calming. Without protest, Eren nods.

* * *

It was strange, being so alone with Levi in his own house. The lights were dim, his mother wasn't home, loud music made his thoughts buzz, everything tasted like raspberry Smirnoff and smelled like clean linen. It was easy to cater to Levi. Standing in the corner, red cups in hand, arms around the short ravenet and his chin on the top of his head.

Wouldn't call it dancing, but occasionally the two of them would sway to the shitty rap Ymir had turned on. It was nice. He wasn't drunk, but he was tipsy enough that kneeling would probably put him on the floor.

Connie and Sasha were outside somewhere smoking, Ymir was bartending, Krista under her arm as usual. Eren was happy to see Sasha and Mikasa's legs tangled together on the sofa while they talked over the music. Jean was here, without Marco, but that worried Eren the least right now. Annie was standing in the corner with someone she invited. Didn't care, not now.

It was a little after 11pm when Connie had come back inside, announcing himself loudly, but earning a laugh out of everyone. Didn't think the party would turn into a house party, and Eren especially didn't expect Levi to be so comfortable and drinking so much.

He started to wonder if Levi was getting tipsy. Time flew by, and after a while standing in the corner was boring. Eren excused himself to get some fresh air, while Levi followed, and Sasha had walked back inside.

The two of them were alone again, outside in the brisk air, no scarf, but drunk smiles.

In the middle of Eren's yard, Eren had wrapped his arms around Levi again, finding the ravenet's lips like his life relied on it. The first kiss ended quickly, but the alcohol made him press for more. Nothing too cocky—even this drunk he wouldn't know what the hell to do. It was enough to have them holding their breath, enough to have a small dribble of drool to web from their lips.

Pulling away with a grin, Levi wipes both of their mouths with a scoff.

"So," Eren hums. "When your friends ask about me… what do you say?"

This would be the first drunken thing to come out of his mouth. Never would he be so cocky otherwise.

"Mm," the raven hums, and after seconds he shrugs. Voice quiet as ever, goosebumps form over tanned skin when Levi mumbles, "What should I say?"

"Dunno. I was thinking I could be your stupid boyfriend, or something." Definitely the alcohol. Probably wouldn't remember any of this in the morning. He hadn't given Levi a chance to answer before the next question came, "Can I ask you something?"

"Just did."

"Yeah," he snorts. "I wanted to ask you about Petra."

Too far. He knows it. Doesn't feel it yet.

"What about her?"

"What happened between the two of you?" Eren takes it as a good sign that Levi hasn't pulled away from their loose embrace yet. Or cursed him out. Both are good. "It's like… weird."

"I'm the reason she cheated on Erwin," he admits silently, eye contact set so strong it almost makes Eren uncomfortable. It's surprising in itself that Levi just came forward with it. "She gave me a foot-job while we were at Erwin's conference meeting. Didn't stop her… it became a regular thing to waltz off every chance we got and messed around. But that foot-job is the reason we got caught."

"Ahh."

"Never fucked her, though. Didn't even kiss her. We just got drunk, and horny, I guess."

Hearing Levi curse was especially strange.

"That's why you left last night."

"Mhm."

"I'm glad." The brunet smirks, pressing his forehead to Levi's. Hearing Levi talk was more than enjoyable. It had become a regular thing. Even though he did still use his phone to speak, most of the time, in moments like this, Levi would speak, and Eren had all the time in the world to listen.

Usually.

"Eren," sending chills down his spine, Levi lifts his hand, using his thumb to trace underneath Eren's eyes. "You know; your eyes are out of this world. I think it was the first thing I noticed about you."

It was the first time Levi had ever really complimented him. It felt like an arrow had shot through his heart. Fucking Cupid needed to bully someone else, if he kept this up he was going to kill him.

No matter how many times he has gotten that compliment before, it is so much more special when it comes from him.

"Thanks," lamely, Eren smiles. "What color do they look to you?"

"Green. Sometimes blue. Hm… golden."

"Golden?" That was one he'd never heard. "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes, when you look at the sun, they just look… gold. Silver maybe. Dunno."

"Never heard that before." Worst thing, he's not sure he remembers what gold even looks like. Mikasa had shown him basic colors, but never really any metals. Can't associate a metal to a color when he'd never thought about it.

Eren must have spaced out, because Levi crouches slightly to collect eye contact again, muttering, "You alright?"

This is probably the best time to spill the beans. After everything Levi had told him, Eren has barely told him a thing. Of course, if it didn't come out now, Levi would only get pissed about it.

With Levi speaking again, it would make the blindness easier. Maybe he doesn't need to know that yet.

Still. His heart weighs. Blaming the alcohol, he sucks in a deep breath.

"I have to tell you something."

At this, Levi visibly stiffens, and his eyes flutter to look down. His hands resting on Eren's shoulders seem to loosen, hesitant to hold on, but linger. Eren is thankful for that.

"Okay." Levi's voice has changed. Not soft, but not loud, only brisk. Eren can hear his accent slip in that one little word.

Eren was never good at talking. His fingers tighten on the loose fabric of Levi's sweater around the ravenet's hips.

"I don't really know how to say it," the brunet stirs his thoughts, biting his bottom lip all the while. "I guess… I can start by saying, when you walked into my shop, you told me you were mute, and I know you thought I was an asshole."

This makes Levi scoff, smile faintly even.

"I am an asshole." Eren corrects.

Levi interrupts with a quiet, "No."

"Still. I hired you, mostly because I saw the same thing in you, that I saw in me. I mean, why do you think I don't have a real job?" Chuckling awkwardly, Eren notices the confusion in Levi's expression. He sighs.

"See, when working at a fast food place, things are color-coordinated. Cut meat on a red plate, veggies on a green plate, so forth. In grocery stores, you have to see the colors of the labels so you don't tell the customer the wrong thing. A receptionist has to know the colors of the buttons on the phone. Driving, you have to see the colors of the lights. You know?"

"Of course." Shaking his head, Levi's brows knit. "Where are you going with this?"

"Well, I can't work at any of those places. My mom kept the shop open so I could build a resume, in hopes maybe one day, I could, but…," sighing again, Levi looks as though he already knows what Eren will say. The wrinkles on his forehead have smoothened out. Still, Eren shrugs, another heavy sigh and rolls his eyes. "But I'm colorblind. So… so… I… understand… I guess."

"Oh." Is all Levi says. "Wow."

Yeah, dropping the _'I'm going blind and won't be able to see by the age of 25'_ bomb seems a little too much right now. Eren's heart is already pounding. Already he hopes Levi won't hate him for keeping the secret.

Wishes Levi would say something.

"So you… you've never… huh. Hm." Levi's fingers tangle absently in the collar of Eren's shirt while his sharp eyes are now dull, seeming to flicker back in forth, hard in thought. "I mean… you—I. Shit. Uh. Never would have guessed. Well. I mean. Now that I think about it… yeah. But."

"Yeah. Don't ever get me a coloring-book for Christmas." What the hell kind of thing was that to say? Eren groans internally. Word vomit.

Still, in the few seconds of silence to follow, Levi snorts, followed by laughter. The brunet can't help but to join in, unknowing if it was the joke or Levi's sudden realization of how ridiculous it all was.

"My God, you're serious?"

"Dead."

"No wonder you always wore mix-matched clothes," Levi laughs into Eren's chest. Eren can't disagree, laughing just as hard. "Oh, my God. Wow. Like… you can't see… any colors? At all?"

"I mean… pink and reds. Other than that, everything is brown and grey."

"Holy shit, Eren." The ravenet scoffs. "How long?"

"Birth."

"Is there like… anyway to fix it?"

That was the serious question always asked. Eren didn't like it, because in truth, no. There were glasses now, but he didn't have the money or insurance to pay for that.

"There are ways around it. It's fine. I did learn something, though." Change the subject. "I spent all this time wondering what your eye color was, and when I found out they were grey, I was honestly pissed."

"Pissed? Why?"

"Because I already see them as grey." The brunet shrugs. "I'm also glad, though, because that means I can always see your eye color. No matter what."

"That was… so cheesy."

"You love it."

Smiling at that, Levi opens his mouth, "I lov—" and in a matter of seconds it closes again, breath hitching. Silver eyes flicker up, wide, in disbelief, almost seeming afraid of what he was going to say.

 _Oh._

Eren's heart can barely take it.

It doesn't have to be said yet. Instead, Eren closes the distance between them again, kissing Levi back into a comfortable relaxation.

He's not sure if it was past midnight, but even if it were, this was the best birthday he could have hoped for. Nothing could change that.


	10. Strawberry Milkshake

**Authors Note:**

I have been back for a while, just busy ~ so sorry ; ; I'm leaving for PT in two or three months, so I hope to finish this story before then. It is possible I may knock some chapters off for now and make a sequel after tech school.

* * *

Anyway.

Time to put Levi into character. u u

I wrote this to Tommy Cash, so if it seems apathetic, it really is. God

It is possible that Levi had been asking for too much lately; just when everything began looking up, his life changing by the second, he was thrown for another loop. Waking up in bed with Eren, the warm sun on their backs and soft kisses was magical. It took barely 5 minutes for Levi's reality to come crashing down with a text from Kenny, letting him know his mom had gone into shock.

It was the anorexia, again.

Now he wonders how he was so blind, so dense to believe she'd gotten better.

In the waiting room of the hospital Eren rested his hand on Levi's shoulder, while the ravenet sulked his head to his knees. Kenny's knee bounced in his peripheral. Not a word had been said since, but Levi tried to focus more on Eren's hand rubbing circles on his back than the idle chatter of the waiting room.

It should be illegal to be happy in a hospital waiting room. Hating their laughter, he really found himself swearing ill on innocent people.

Knowing it had to be late by now, Levi lifts his head only to check his phone. It's 6pm, and no matter how upset he is, he doesn't want Eren to suffer. He'd already tried to convince Eren to go home, but he refused to leave.

Slowly, Levi types.

 _'Want to get some dinner?'_ Thinking about it made Levi realize how hungry he really was.

Didn't feel like talking, and he barely felt like typing, so he was thankful Eren didn't even try to protest. Instead, the brunet nodded, stood up and helped Levi out of his chair. Not that he needed it, but he appreciated the arm around his waist.

"We're going to get something to eat," Eren's talking to Kenny, but Levi is staring at the floor, barely listening. "Do you want anything?"

"No, I'll text Levi if there's change." His usual happy-go-lucky attitude had mellowed, thankfully.

With a nod, the two of them were out of the hospital. Levi left it up to Eren to find a place to eat; luckily it wasn't some shitty fast food. The brunet picked out a steak house that seemed relatively empty. Only a cop and a group of teens were eating there.

Even though the walk was short, Levi's legs felt like they would give way. He was thankful when they were seated at a booth, and Eren sat across from him, thanking the waitress and ordered water.

At this point he knew he should say something to Eren, even if it was just thanking him, but it seemed like his voice had hidden away again, and all he could do was stare silently at the pitiful smile and worried eyes.

Sighing softly, Levi breaks the gaze to check the menu. After smelling the aroma of the restaurant, he realized just how hungry he really was.

It took him a nearly 30 minutes to come to a conclusion. He'd read over the menu at least 10 times, never really processing any of the words. In the end he ordered a strawberry shake, and a side of fries. Anything else was too heavy for his stomach.

Eren ordered the same, except a vanilla shake.

Once the food came, they ate silently, barely eating at all. Not that he didn't appreciate Eren, but Levi really wishes he weren't here right now. The silence was borderline awkward, and Levi felt responsible for it.

After the tension began building, Levi pulled his phone out, typing hastily.

 _'Do you want to stay at my place tonight?'_

The last thing he wanted was to be alone. The sun was going down, and his anxiety would only be confined for so long.

"Of course, Levi."

Was that pity, or did Eren really want to stay with him?

Pushing back that thought, he nods, feeling sick to his stomach as he finally got to the bottom of his shake. After a sigh from Eren, the two of them returned to silence, and Levi suddenly felt the urge to apologize.

He didn't, and they left the restaurant soon after Eren paid.

Kenny texted him, but only to let Levi know they're sending guests home for the night, and recommends he just goes home. Luckily for them, the last bus of the night would be arriving soon. The bus stop was close to the shop, and a quick walk to Levi's apartment, still quiet as ever.

It had been years since he'd smoked, but the question nagged his mind of texting Sasha for some smoke.

He bit his nails instead.

Should have seen it coming, but somehow it surprised and irritated him equally when he opened his apartment door and found Petra and Erwin sitting in the living room with Hanji and Moblit. All four of them were watching some war movie, it was far too loud.

"Welcome home!" Hanji wails, throwing her arm over the sofa to look back at him. "Oh, hey, Eren!"

"Hey." Eren says quietly, following Levi to the bedroom.

"Where have you been all day?" Petra whines. "Aren't you gonna come watch the movie with us?"

This time Eren says nothing, and Levi is thankful for it. He holds the door open for Eren, but as soon as the brunet is inside Levi shuts the door and locks it. Turning around, he sighs heavily, sitting his phone down on the dresser.

Levi forgets this is the first time Eren has been in his room.

"Sit." Levi waves towards the bed.

With absolutely no idea what the two of them will do, Levi strips his sweater off, tossing it on the floor without care. Drifting to his closet, he pulls the first tank top he sees, a plain black one, and pulls it on.

"Are you okay, Levi?" Comes the gentle voice that makes Levi turn around. Levi sighs again, nasally this time, slumping his shoulders after a shrug. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Levi sits next to Eren on the edge of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees as he props his chin onto his palm. His face must look so sunken, he knows, yet for some reason he worries Eren might begin to find him unattractive if he kept up with it.

His thoughts were too far stretched out.

"No," Levi murmurs quietly, staring at the sweater balled up on the floor. "This isn't the first time she's done this. I should be used to it."

He's thankful that Eren must have dropped it, because he doesn't hear another word. Instead, Eren kicks his shoes off and slides onto the back of the bed, taking Levi by surprise when he pulls at the ravenet's arm. Unsure of what Eren is asking of him entirely, he allows the brunet to pull him onto the bed and kicks off his shoes as well.

For some reason Levi doesn't protest Eren curling around him, wrapping his legs around Levi's, and pulling him into a tight embrace. With their foreheads pressed together, it is ultimately uncomfortable, although it could be from how tense Levi is.

He still wants to apologize.

Eren kisses his forehead, and he wants to apologize.

Eren kisses his nose, and he still wants to apologize.

Eren kisses under his eye, and he's so sorry.

To have wasted his time, to have worried him, for being so fake, for causing so much trouble.

Eren kisses his lips, and he returns it tenderly.

It's bittersweet, and ends with Eren resting his head, staring at him again. Closing his eyes, Levi sighs.

"Sorry." It's the best he can do.

"For what?"

"Everything," he replies. "If it weren't for me you'd be in your shop right now, probably getting ready to go home."

"Levi, you seriously think that?"

Now he felt bad. Nodding quietly, Eren pulls away to prop his elbow up, resting his head on his palm.

"You don't have anything to apologize for. I love spending time with you. Even during the bad times," Eren rests his head again, sighing nasally. He runs his fingers along Levi's jawline. "I want to always be there for you."

"Don't say things like that."

"I'm—I'm… what? Why?"

"Because, I'll fall in love with you." He can't believe the words came out of his mouth. Face hot, his heart beats louder. It was too soon to even mention the "L" word, of course, Levi knew that. But, this is what a moment was supposed to be, right? It was fine.

At least he hoped it was.

And Eren smiles, reassuring him silently it was okay.

"I dare you."

It takes him a few seconds to process it, but when he does, he presses his face into the pillow to hide the small smile. Every nerve in his body came alive once Eren grins.

Oh, if only Eren knew, and if only he had the worse judgement to spill his heart out.

Instead, he lifts his head again, claiming Eren's lips softly.

Nothing could ruin the moment; not even Hanji's ear shattering poor excuse of a laugh.

Until Eren pulls away to speak again.

"Can I say it? Just one time?" He laughs quietly.

Surely Eren wasn't thinking what Levi thought he was thinking. Convinced he was exaggerating, Levi shrugs.

"Don't have to ask for permission to speak."

"Okay," Eren swallows, his voice trembling ever so slightly. "I know it's soon, and you don't have to say it back, but I do... I love you, Levi, and I'm not going anywhere. So don't ever apologize to me again. Not… not like that, at least."

So it was that.

It's not what he wanted to hear, although he can't say he didn't want to hear it.

For once Levi wishes he couldn't remember everything wrong with this, but like a flood it comes back. He was still unsure if Jean was out of the picture, if Eren was even serious about this or just a horny high school boy.

Nevertheless, he was stunned to silence. A reluctant smile creases his cheeks, and he tries to ignore the thoughts for the time being.

"Just this one time." Levi's chest tightens; this was such an awful idea. "I love you."

Not even his mother could ruin this moment; if that made him selfish, he ideally accepted it as Eren's arms tightened around him.

* * *

 **End Notes:**

Forgive me

I finished writing this at like 2am I am dead and I have to train in 4 hours fucc

I feel like this chapter really jumped from point A to B really fast but I physically can't edit it anymore and I'm excited for the next chapter wah


	11. A Mother's Touch

**Authors Note:**

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I started this. I really can't. It feels like I posted it just a few months ago. You have all been so sweet and I'm so excited to finally get into the plot now. I hope you all enjoy.

Something came up while I tried to proofread this, so I didn't get to. If there are any mistakes let me know, please ~

* * *

It had been two days since their first visit to the hospital. Eren didn't expect Levi to rebound from it, but this couldn't be okay, Eren knew that, and he worried for the ravenet sitting in the window of the shop.

Again Levi strummed idly on the guitar, his head rested on the glass; Eren was unsure if Levi was even in focus.

So badly he wanted to do something, to comfort him, even pry, but he kept hushed. Levi insisted on coming to work today, and no matter how much Eren tried to convince him not to, Levi didn't heed any pleas.

Eren didn't mind that Levi wasn't working. He was positive all Levi wanted was company, making it all the sadder that Levi came to him.

He didn't cry, didn't speak much, didn't eat his breakfast or coffee.

Sighing, Eren finishes bagging his customer's things, tearing his eyes away from the window.

As much as he hated to think about it, he was considering going behind Levi's back to speak to Kenny—if the old man would even speak to him at all.

If not, maybe Petra and Erwin would know what to do.

All Eren had to do was get their attention… somehow.

His chance came that evening, when Levi's phone went off abruptly, breaking the silence in the shop. Levi answered it, and murmured a few things before ending the call a minute later. Sitting the guitar down, Levi pocketed his phone and crossed the shop.

"Mom woke up," he announces softly. "I'm going to go visit her."

And so Eren's plan began—he hated lying to Levi, a knot was already forming in his gut. It was so wrong of him to even consider this, and even worse Eren lied that he couldn't go with Levi. Pretending to keep the shop open, he hugged Levi tightly, kissed him on the forehead and chewed the inside of his mouth as Levi left.

Shutting the shop down took roughly 10 minutes, and Eren figured the ravenet would be at the bus stop by now. Lucky for Eren, he remembered how to get to Levi's apartment, and knew the backroads to avoid being seen, all the while his heart pounded rapidly, so much it almost made him feel dizzy. He kept his head down while he walked quickly, constantly looking over his shoulder.

By the time he'd reached Levi's apartment, he thought he might throw up. The front door seemed unreal. Swallowing thickly, he felt the heat rising on his face as he knocked loudly on the door. It was now he felt like running, all of the dread made his throat dry.

Levi would hate him if he knew.

He could hear the locks on the other side turning; his knees felt weak.

While he expected Hanji, he was surprised when it was Petra who answered the door. Somber as usual, she looked delicate in a white sun dress and her hair tied up in a messy ponytail.

"Oh, hey!" She smiles, then quickly her expression morphs into confusion. She tilts her head. "I thought Levi was with you."

"He… he was. I came here alone." He clears his throat; she looks confused. "I wanted to talk to you, actually."

"Oh." Thin brows furrow as she steps aside, "Come in."

"Is it just you here?"

"Mhm," after shutting the door, she folds her hands behind her back. "Erwin is helping Hanji move some things out. What did you want to talk about?"

"Levi…. His mom, specifically."

"Oh, well, okay. I don't know her too well."

"Do you know anything about her being sick?"

"Well… I know that she's always been sick," she crosses the room to sit on the sofa, so Eren followed, sitting on the couch across from her. "Honestly, you'd have more luck asking Erwin."

"Oh. Oh well," he sighs. It was a bad idea. Still, he asked another question. "Are they close? Erwin and Levi?"

"Used to be." She nods, frowning. "I don't know how much Levi has told you. But after the accident, everyone kind of… drifted apart."

"The car accident?" Eren asks, and Petra nods. "He's told me about Isabel and Farlan… he's never really told me much about any of his other friends."

"I'm surprised he mentioned those two."

"Why?"

"It's… I can't really _say_." She shrugs, curling her hair between her fingers nervously. "Eren, has… has Levi shown you the video?"

"No…"

Just at the mention of that video makes his stomach churn.

"But you know… what I'm talking about?"

"Yeah."

"Do… do you want to…," she tucks her hair behind her ear, eyes avoiding contact as she fidgets. Voice trembling, she sighs. "Um… did you want to see it?"

This was awful to even consider. Eren couldn't believe himself—he'd done some shitty things, but this really took the cake.

"I won't tell Levi. I promise." She exhales slowly. "You'll understand everything if you watch it."

For some reason, Eren believed her. So he nodded.

"Okay." He mutters.

With one more nod, she stands up, her feet pattering against the carpet as she hurries to the hallway, into Levi's room. From the sofa, Eren can hear her fumbling around with something, clunking things around, before finally returning with a DVD case in her hands, colored orange and titled "the accident" in messy handwriting.

"Are you sure?" She holds the disk to her chest, eyes wide as she watches Eren.

"I'm…," of course not—this isn't what he wanted, and if Levi found out… Eren didn't even want to think of Levi finding out. It would be the end of them, of their friendship, relationship, everything—and yet his curiosity was swallowing him whole. Inhaling sharply through his teeth, he nods. "I'm sure."

Petra nods again, turning the television on. She pops the disk in, and plays the video.

The video began, starting with Hanji's face on the screen, her bulky glasses reflecting on the summer sun. Raising the camera, Eren assumes she's put it on the top of her head. A GoPro, Eren assumed. Petra fast forwards the video.

"I think Hanji even goes to the bathroom with the camera," she laughs. "No one needs to see that."

Eren agrees with a quiet, nervous laugh.

"Were you with them?" Eren watches as the scenes fly by, seeing a few blurs of Levi every so often. "When the accident happened?"

"No," she answers. "Isabel, Farlan and Hanji were with him."

"I know who they are, but… who _is_ Isabel and Farlan? To Levi?"

"They… they were like Levi's siblings." She stops the video, reading the time. "Two hours and 40 minutes in. If I remember right… this is it."

From what Levi had told him, she had to be right. Hanji was sitting in the passenger seat of a muscle car—Eren couldn't tell what kind, but he could tell they were going far too fast. It seemed like a long stretch of road, empty as could be, nothing but trees for miles.

"Are you sure you want to see this?" Petra asks.

No, he wasn't sure, and no, he didn't want to see this.

So why did he nod?

It felt like his body moved against his judgement.

"Okay...," she mumbles.

Emerald eyes are glued to the screen.

"Levi, can we stop by Seaworld while we're here?" Comes a shrill voice from the backseat. Hanji turns to look at the redheaded girl—Isabel, Petra informs Eren. Isabel is staring at a pamphlet. "Puh-leeeease? I want to see the dolphins!"

"You paying for gas money?"

It didn't sound like Levi at all—Eren wouldn't have believed it was Levi if Hanji didn't turn to look at the ravenet. The voice was so much deeper, booming almost. There was no scar, either. Levi was dressed in a v-neck sweater, exposing the flawless skin that used to be there. His skin radiated, and he wore a smirk.

"Uh! What kinda big brother are you?" Isabel retorts.

"Yours," Levi glances in the rearview, brows raised sarcastically. Finally, Levi gives in with a snort. "Of course we'll go."

"Can we get something to eat first?" A male voice comes, but Hanji doesn't turn around to see who it is.

"What're you in the mood for?" Levi asks.

"Anything." The boy says. "I'm starving."

"Me too!" Isabel whines.

Levi looks as though he's opening his mouth to say something, but shuts his mouth immediately. The car appears for a split second, and Levi stomps on the brakes obviously. Someone begins screaming, Eren can't tell who.

"Fuc—!" Levi grunts.

It's happening.

Eren knows it's happening.

The tires of the car squeal loudly, and quickly after the sound of crunching metal follows. Everything is spinning, glass is flying, everyone is screaming. Every so often Eren gets a blur of Levi's figure, but it's not enough to determine what Levi is doing. Considering the situation Eren is sure the ravenet is trying to get a hold of the wheel.

That's when the second thud comes. Eren is unsure what's happening.

Everything seems to still for a moment, and Eren can see out of the window in time to tell the car is tilting onto its side, and then rolling slowly—everything is upside down a moment, until it rolls again, coming to a complete stop. The only thing Eren can see is the dash of the car, covered in glimmering broken glass.

Suddenly, it's quiet.

For the longest time, there's not a sound to be heard besides an eerie hiss.

It feels like forever, and Eren is holding his breath.

His heartbeat is drumming in his ears.

"Mmph," the camera moves. Hanji is awake. Her bloody hands appear, she's touching the dash, the window, the seatbelt. Finally, she looks to the driver's side.

Levi's there, eyes closed but awake, teeth clenched in pain. There is the piece of glass he'd told Eren about, sticking just barely out of his throat. The ravenet coughs quietly, blood dripping onto his bottom lip, blood dripping from the wound in his neck, his fingertips bleeding onto his hands.

"Ho…holy shit… Le—Levi," Hanji whimpers, her hands are trembling as she undoes her seatbelt. "Don't… Don't move, Levi…"

Hanji scoots around her seat, whining in pain the entire way. She looks into the backseat, and Eren feels the bile in his stomach begin to churn.

There's so much blood, everywhere, all over the little girl, all over the teenage boy. They're both unconscious, eyes closed and blood dripping from their noses.

They look dead.

"No—no, fuck… no…," Hanji tries her best to reach for them, but she seems stuck. She looks back to Levi, able to reach him, she undoes his seatbelt. From the top of his head he's bleeding now, his nose is bleeding as well, the air bag is deflated in his lap. She's feeling all over his chest, pulling at his sweater. "Le…Levi, can you hear me? H-hey?"

Levi takes a deep, raspy breath in, only to bring him to a coughing fit. His mouth bleeds more than before.

Eren wants to hide his eyes.

"No—don't die, Levi please…," Hanji cries, obviously shaking her head. "Please—pl… breathe."

Grey eyes open finally, and he spits up the blood in his mouth. His breathing is the loudest thing on the video, struggling and jarring. His hands move, feeling his throat, then the steering wheel. Looking around, Levi seems bewildered, confused, as if he's looking for something.

Then his hand lands on the door handle, he opens it with ease to Eren's shock. His free hand is grasping at his throat, the glass between his bloody fingers.

"No—Levi, what're you doing?!" Hanji wails, grasping at the fabric of his clothes.

The raven tries to say something, but it comes out as gargles and coughing. Eren cringes, watching as Hanji crawls over the seats, constantly looking from Isabel and Farlan, to Levi stumbling into the middle of the road, covered in debris. Outside of the car is wailing from a grown man.

Eren remembers this part of the story.

Groaning all the way, Hanji gets to the driver's side and crawls out onto the road. It takes her a while to get up, all the while yelling ensues.

By the time she gets to her knees, it's just in time to see the short ravenet being towered over. Levi has his hands up defensively, his mouth moving but nothing but blood coming out.

"Shut the fuck up!" The man is huge, a giant dirty blond man, eyes bulging and crazy. In one swift movement the man shoves forward, knocking Levi onto his back. Eren can see the ravenet's head hit the concrete. It doesn't stop the man from hovering over Levi, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Shut up! My wife—my kid! Fuck you! I should shove that glass—I should kill you!"

"Stop!" Hanji's hoarse cries, hastily crawling towards her friend. Levi seems alive still, but Eren can only tell because his hands are grasping at the air in front of him. "Leave 'im… alone. Please."

The man pays no attention to Hanji.

Still, the redhead is crawling towards Levi. Eren can tell now her fingernails are bleeding, some are missing. Silently she rolls over. It looks like she's resting her head on Levi's arm, but the camera is pointed up at the sky. Eren can hear Levi's labored breathing, and Hanji's broken breathing.

The video pauses. Eren looks to Petra.

"That's it." She's got her face tucked to her hugged knees, tears streaming down her cheeks. With a trembling voice she takes a deep breath and wipes her face. "The rest is the man screaming. Levi and Hanji pass out after that."

"I…," Eren's voice cracks. It's not until now he realizes he's been crying. Wiping his face, he hiccups while trying to take a deep breath. "That… that was horrible."

"I know."

"What… What happened to the other people?"

"We never got the man's name, but the woman's name was Ilse." She explains slowly. "Apparently she'd just been on the verge of a mental breakdown. No one knows why she was driving on the wrong side of the road."

"And her baby… it died."

"Yeah…"

The silence that comes between them is sickening. Both of them tremble, eyes glued to the floor. It feels like hours, but Eren knows it's barely been one.

Just as Eren was searching deep in his blank mind for something to say, Petra sobs.

"It… it's my fault…," Petra cries, holding her hands over her mouth. "I was supposed to drive! I was supposed to… but I… I stayed behind with Erwin. I should have been driving! Levi was going too fast!"

"It's… it's not Levi's fault." Eren drones, feeling absent from reality. Her words barely make sense. "Even if you'd have been in the driver's seat… you… you would have died. I don't even… I don't understand how Levi is _alive_."

"You don't understand," she huffs, standing up abruptly. Ejecting the disk, she puts it back into the case and storms back into Levi's room. When she returns, she's empty handed. Storming into the kitchen, she rips the fridge open and pulls out a jug of juice. The brunet reluctantly follows her. "I hate myself, Eren. I should have been the one in that seat. Levi didn't have to go that fast."

He'd never seen someone pour a glass of juice so angry.

"Well… it wasn't. What can you do about it?" Genuinely, he has no idea what to say. "Levi is… physically stronger than you. If it'd been you, it would have killed you. Levi drove that day for a reason."

"I was supposed to go on a date with Levi," she slams her glass onto the counter. "I cheated on him. With Erwin. That morning. And I just… regret it every day. I'm… I'm jealous of you."

Eren is under the impression there was more in that cup than just juice.

"I'm sorry," he supposes he is—not really. Shaking his head, he shrugs, holding his elbow nervously. "But I love Levi… I can't… I can't help you."

"I know. I'm happy for you two." Doesn't seem that way. "I really am, I swear. I just… it's not you, it's not Levi, it's just me."

Eren understood that more than anyone. He'd felt the same way with Jean. Although, he had moved on. He loved Levi now, and nothing was changing that. So badly he wants to tell her that she will move on too, but he knows it's not what she wants to hear.

Nodding quietly, Eren says no more.

"Me and you are a lot more alike than you think," Eren shrugs sadly, his eyes trailing off. "I appreciate you doing this."

"You should probably go before Levi or Hanji get home." She disregards everything he says. "I won't tell anyone you were here."

As much as he'd like to resolve the issue, he knows he can't help but to agree. There was no telling who could come through the front door, or when, and him being here would only give him away. He thanks her one last time before he shows himself out.

He had nowhere to go.

Home wasn't an option, he would only feel anxious. Could open the shop back up, but customers never even came around sundown. Glancing at his phone, he had no new messages, so he texted Levi.

There was no response as Eren idly walked to the bus stop.

He decided to go to the hospital.

Everything had set on during the bus ride. The memory of Levi bleeding, sounds of pain, Hanji's cries and the limp bodies of teenagers. It all made him sick to his stomach.

Worst of all, he regretted it.

Realizing now he shouldn't have invaded Levi's privacy, he chews the inside of his mouth, contemplating how he will be able to keep a face around the ravenet.

He was even paranoid Petra would rat him out.

Once he arrived to the hospital, he tried his hardest to tuck those feelings as deep down as he could; repress everything he'd seen, and calmly walked through the fluorescent hallways.

If Levi wasn't in the waiting room, then he had to be in his mother's room, and luckily Eren remembered the room number.

Sure enough, the door was open, and a dark figure sat slumped over in the chair next to the bed of the frail woman. She looked on the brink of death—almost as bad as the figures he'd seen today, just with less blood. A lot less blood. She was so pale.

Despite Levi's earlier claim of her waking up, she seemed comatose now.

As Eren approaches the chair, he knew it was Levi, without a doubt, silent as ever. The silver eyes look up once Eren is standing next to him, hands in his pocket and a frown to compliment his paled face.

"How is she?" Is all Eren can say.

It takes moments of silence, hearing the clock tick irately in the room, before Levi sucks in a deep breath.

"Dying." He says monotone, as if it hadn't even affected him. "Organ failure."

The brunet looks down; Levi seems so small and fragile, no matter how stern his voice comes off as. One small gust of air would turn the raven into dust.

"How are you?" Eren didn't need to ask, he already knew, and he wasn't surprised when he didn't get an answer.

The quietness was tolerable now. Eren didn't feel like speaking, either.

Instead, he stands behind the ravenet, wrapping both arms around Levi's neck and burying his nose into the short ebony hair.

No longer was Levi's aroma refreshing; he smelled like cigarettes.

Eren didn't mind. He kissed the nape of Levi's neck gently, whispering softly behind Levi's ear.

"I'm sorry." For so many things was Eren sorry. "I love you."

The only response was a gentle squeeze to Eren's hands. It was all he needed.

* * *

 **End Note:**

Some people won't understand it, which is fine (I kinda tried to make it subtle) but the man is supposed to be the Talking Titan from Ilse's spin off. u u Of course, the woman is Ilse. Yaaay, the plot thickens


	12. Linen and Lavender

**Authors Note:**

ARMIN MY BABY

Three spiced rum drinks later and we have a very messy chapter that should be proof-read but I'm far too lazy and impatient to do that. I hope you guys enjoy. I will do 10x better next chapter I promise. I already have it written out and I'm excited.

* * *

Time drug painstakingly slow. The red numbers read it was a quarter after 4am, and Eren's eyes were heavy. Curled in a blanket, the brunet hugged his knees in the corner of Levi's bed, while the ravenet was just returning from another cigarette break—his 6th one in an hour. Eren knew there was nothing he could say to make Levi stop, so he kept his mouth shut, and welcomed Levi's chilly body back into his arms, wrapping him in the blanket to share warmth.

It was unusually cold outside tonight, and Levi's fingertips were cold on Eren's hands.

"Aren't you tired?" Eren mutters, voice groggy and hoarse.

"Getting there."

Eren spooned him, running his fingers through ebony hair, sighing against the crook of Levi's neck as he pulled the ravenet closer. The brunet knew he wasn't going to last much longer, but he didn't want to leave Levi up with his thoughts.

If only Levi would talk about it. Instead, Levi seemed interested in Eren.

"What're you thinking about?" Comes his soft voice.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Eren kisses the shell of Levi's ear before resting his head behind Levi's.

"Dunno," he shrugs. "Distract me. Tell me."

The sun was coming up. Eren decided to humor the ravenet.

"I'm worried, about you." That was cliché. Even Levi scoffed. "I… I want to help you in any way that I can. But I don't know how to. Can you at least tell me that?"

Sighing softly, Levi rolls onto his back, and Eren props his head up. A very agitated silver meets emerald, and lazy eyes blink slowly, almost as if he's dumbfounded.

Finally, Levi looks away, staring at the ceiling with a heavy sigh to follow.

"Eren, unless you have 30,000 dollars hidden up your ass somewhere, there's nothing anyone can do."

The brunet wants so badly to have something to say in return to that. Anything. To give Levi some kind of hope, but that number was intimidating, and Eren knew better than anyone else that Levi wasn't exaggerating. His mother was still paying off her hospital bills, but her condition wasn't life or death, either.

"Sorry." Eren murmurs, resting his head beside Levi's again.

"Go to sleep, you're tired." Levi slips out from underneath Eren's arm, digging in his closet for a moment before pulling out a jacket.

Eren begins to ask "where are you going?" until Levi pulls the crumpled cigarette pack out of his pocket. Without a word, Levi leaves the room, and Eren sighs against the pillow, curling himself back into the blankets that still smelled of linen and lavender.

He wasn't sure when, or if, he'd fallen asleep. When he woke up again, the sun was up, and the bed was empty. All he remembers is having nightmares of crunching metal, waking up in a cold sweat and having a crick from hell in his neck.

It was warmer now. Kicking the blankets off, he sits on the edge of the bed, rubbing his oily face with shaky hands. When he checks the clock, he realizes why he feels so sluggish. He'd only gotten 6 hours of sleep, and they weren't pleasant.

Sighing, he lifts himself off of the bed reluctantly and exits the bedroom, expecting to find Levi, but the apartment was empty. Not even a trace of the obnoxious trio was here.

Drifting to the front door, Eren checked the peephole.

No one was there.

When he checked his phone, he had no messages, so he texted Levi.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 _where'd you go_

The brunet was certain he was at the hospital, but he felt compelled to ask.

Into the kitchen he strolled, rubbing his shoulder. Hanji must have left their coffee pot; Eren was thankful for it. He made a pot and waited for it to brew, all the while staring at his phone, not doing anything in particular. For almost 5 minutes straight he zoned off, staring blankly at Levi's messages, waiting for a reply.

$30,000.

That was a lot of money.

Clicking his phone off, he pulls a coffee cup from the cupboard. Must have been one of Levi's, because it was fancy as shit, gold rims and all. Could have turned on the dishwasher, but Eren had no idea how to use one of those things, and wasn't about to flood the apartment.

Instead, he poured some milk in his cup, two spoonful's of sugar, and made his cup of coffee.

That number sounded familiar the more he thought about it—something close to it at least.

Leaning against the counter, Eren sipped on his hot coffee, browsing his phone in his free hand.

Mikasa was hanging out with Sasha again today, apparently Sash's poor cat swallowed something. They were at the vet.

Jean commented on it, a sad face. Eren scoffs.

Armin posted something—that was a once in a dark moon kind of thing.

 **Armin Arlert**

 _Anyone have those physic notes from Kieth's class? Help a dying kid in need…_

Eren liked it, even though he had no idea what the hell Armin would need someone else's notes for. Armin was the smartest person Eren knows—knew. No idea why the blondie would be slacking off mid-semester.

More scrolling, more sipping.

Krista Reiss commented on one of Ymir's photos. She was in a tux, standing next to someone who seemed important. Eren didn't know the context, and didn't care. He liked Krista's comment, and the photo.

 **Krista Reiss**

 _Looking good my sweet!_

At least they were cute together.

He wonders if he and Levi will ever be like that.

Once he finishes his cup, he texts Levi one more time.

 **[To] [Levi]**

 _im going to use your shower… i hope thats okay_

He didn't mention that he was going to steal clothes from the ravenet. Figures it's best to leave that part out for now. Sitting his phone on the counter, he leaves his mess for another time, and heads into the bathroom.

There's always the assumption someone else's shower is difficult to use, and that would be correct. Eren wasn't sure what the hell all these knobs were for.

Once he figured it out, he showered unhurriedly, taking his time, smelling Levi's soup—it was minty, earthy and organic apparently. He didn't know Levi was a tree hugger.

His shampoo smelled like lavender, no surprise there.

After a 30-minute shower, Eren wrapped a towel around his waist and returned to the bedroom to find the smell of linen on Levi's clothes. Reluctantly, Eren put on the same pair of underwear, and found a baggy pair of maroon sweatpants. They were far too fancy. Too many zippers, tight around the ankles; Eren wonders why he'd never seen Levi wear these.

Most of the ravenet's shirts are too little, except a baggy black tank top with a white cross decal on the chest pocket.

Drifting back to the bathroom with clean feet, he sighs as he leans against the counter again, tapping his phone lazily until it turned on.

What he sees has his heart pounding in his chest at an alarming spike.

 **[From] [Armin]**

 _Hey. Still alive?_

 _Long time no talk?_

 _Want to meet titans?_

 _My treat._

That was… so strange. It left Eren speechless.

It felt like hours before his fingers began moving.

 **[To] [Armin]**

 _yeah… sounds good_

 _im on the way?_

It had to be a joke.

And yet, Eren found himself excited.

 **[From] [Armin]**

 _OK._

 _See you there, Eren_

He wasn't sure if Levi had his key, or if he should leave the door unlocked, or clean his coffee cup, but he left everything as is while rushing out of the apartment. He locked the door and slammed it shut, hurrying down the stairs without hesitation.

What the hell was this?

Nervously, Eren kept his eyes glued to his phone as he sped down the sidewalks.

It wasn't too far.

It took him barely 6 minutes, with the rush he was in. By the time he'd gotten there he was sweating, and by the time he arrived, a familiar head of light hair was waiting at the front door.

Eren had no idea what to say.

All he could do was walk up to his old friend, and stand dumbfounded. All of those weeks spent hating Armin, it seemed to all shed away once those eyes looked up at him. Those big, bright, colorless eyes.

Mikasa told him they were blue like the sky. And every time Eren compared it, he believed her.

"What's with the thug outfit?" Armin snorts, cupping his hands together cutely in front of him. Always so delicate.

That took him off guard. Eren expected something a little more dramatic.

More hateful.

Stuttering, Eren shakes his head, before looking down at his outfit and laughs.

"Oh, it's not—it's Levi's clothes," he explains, until remembering Armin has no idea who Levi is. "Oh, and Levi is—"

"Your boyfriend, I know."

"How do you..."

"Mikasa, duh."

"Right, should have known," Eren claps his hands, rolling his eyes before the silence falls over, awkward chuckles die out. "So… what's up?"

"We… need to talk," he scratches the back of his neck, sighing heavily. "I have a lot of things I need to tell you… and to apologize for."

"Oh… okay." That didn't sound good, or maybe it did, Eren wasn't sure. "Should we sit down?"

"Yeah," he chirps, smiling. "Find a seat. I'll get the coffee."

"Oh, here."

Before Eren can even reach for his wallet, Armin shakes his head.

"Don't worry about it. Financial aid covers coffee addictions," he laughs, "A tall mocha? Extra chocolate and expresso, right?"

"Yeah, thanks."

The blond parts silently, finding the counter and chats with Connie, who gives the both of them some odd looks. Probably wondering if they're friends again, or something along the line. Eren didn't care.

He found a seat in the corner, where he and Armin used to always sit anyway.

While waiting he checked his phone, hoping there would be something from Levi.

But his inbox was empty.

He tried not to look too disappointed when he looked back up to the counter.

Armin was waiting quietly, his eyes occupied by his phone. Probably studying, or reading. He always was.

The blond was dressed as neat as always, a soft colored vest on top of a white button up, his collar straightened and decorated with two golden cat face pins. Blond hair was pulled back into a small ponytail, but strands were feathering his face.

Nothing had changed.

Armin was still a beautiful human being.

When Connie returned, Eren finally looked back at his phone to avoid being caught staring. He acted surprised when Armin came back with the coffee, setting his phone down with a smile and graciously taking his iced coffee.

"So, how have you been?" Armin asks.

"Good," he answers, sucking air through his teeth with a shrug. "New boyfriend. Not like I ever had an old one."

"Right," the blond snorts, smiling sweetly.

"What about you?"

"Nothing new. School… more school."

"Yeah," Eren chuckles, sipping his drink to fill the momentary silence. When Armin doesn't fill it, Eren does so skittishly. "So… uh, this… you know? Can't be what you wanted to talk about."

"No, it's not." He smiles. "Should I just get into it? Are you busy?"

"Not really busy… just curious."

"Okay, well," clearing his throat, Armin meets his eyes. "Do you understand why I left?"

It didn't take a rocket scientist.

"Because… you like Jean." Eren answers quickly.

"No, Eren," the blond sighs sadly, his dark eyes disconnecting with Eren's. His manicured fingers trace the designs of the table. "I don't like Jean."

"I don't understand, then." Shaking his head, he holds his hands against the table defenselessly. "What was all of that about, Armin?"

"I like _you_." The blond blurts. And in seconds, the pale porcelain skin turns three shades darker, and Eren can feel his own face heating. Voice trembling, Armin's hands shake now, so badly he can barely trace the outline of the table. "I-I got so excited when I heard you were done pining after Jean… a-and then Mikasa told me you'd met someone else. Maybe it's selfish…"

Of course it is, Eren wants to say. All of that wasted time, all of those nights in a guilty fear, and it was because of this? Furious, Eren sinks his face into his hand—although there was something else. He wasn't mad… it was shame maybe, or relief. There were far too many emotions to be feeling at once.

"I-I'm sorry. Now you se… why I needed space."

"Yeah…" Sighing, Eren looks back up, wide, scared eyes are glued on him. He can't stay mad at Armin. Instead, he sips his coffee, running his fingers along the water droplets. After stalling for as long as he can, he clears his throat, trying to ignore the brain freeze he'd given himself. "So… those feelings?"

"Sorry." Armin shrugs. "I still have them."

Just as Eren is opening his mouth, his phone chimes, and the screen clearly reveals the name "Levi".

Great timing.

"Sorry," Eren takes his phone hastily.

Armin says something, but Eren doesn't register it.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 _Are you still at the apartment?_

 **[To] [Levi]**

 _no, why_

"What'd you say?" Eren looks up from his phone.

"I said show me a picture of this guy," Armin chuckles. "Mikasa tells me he's… interesting."

"Mikasa would fight a fixture if it got into her way," Eren rolls his eyes, laughing once Armin agrees. He sorts through his picture album—the only photo he had of Levi, besides the shirtless one, and he wasn't going to show that to Armin. "Here, I have this one."

The one Eren took the first day they met, and the day Eren knew Levi was going to be trouble.

Legs crossed, sitting cute on the shop counter, usual narrow eyes are wide and confused, and his face was slightly flushed from the heat. Needless to say, it was Eren's favorite photo on his entire phone.

Armin takes the phone, staring at it for a long and hard while.

"He's cute," is all that Armin can say. Laughing softly, Armin hands Eren his phone back. "Didn't know you were into emo boys."

"He's not _emo_!" Eren scoffs, snatching his phone joking, a smile peeling all the while. "And he's not a boy."

"Oh yeah?" Armin snickers.

"Yeah," Eren says as-a-matter-of-factly. "He's 21."

"Ooh, he can sneak you drinks in the club."

"Don't need anyone to do that for me, thank you very much." With a grin, Eren chews on the tip of his straw. He stares at Levi's picture, remembering the very drastic situation the two of them are in.

He closes the photo quickly, selfishly not wanting to think about it. Just in time his phone chimes.

 **[From] [Levi]**

 _I'm on the way home. Just wondering._

"I'm glad you're happy." Armin's smile fades, slowly, but surely, his big eyes are staring back down at the table.

 _Are you?_

Eren keeps his mouth shut, licking his lips to dissolve his own smile.

"Well, there is a favor I could ask you." Eren shrugs. "If you plan on sticking around."

"Yeah, don't worry about that. It feels good to get it out in the open." Armin waves it off dismissively, cutely. "What's up?"

"You're good with math, right?"

"What kind?"

"Financing." Eren answers. "Selling property, maybe?"

"Oddly specific, why do you ask?"

"I just need a property value… estimate, whatever the hell it's called." Eren fiddles with a napkin, tearing the corners for the hell of it.

"You're not… you're not thinking about the shop, are you?"

"Yeah," he answers softly, looking up from his fingers busy at work, meeting narrowed eyes. "I am."


	13. Green Eyed Monster

Disappointment showed brash on his face as silver eyes glanced hesitantly at his phone and saw that all 16 messages he'd sent to Eren were still unread. It had been a week since he'd heard from him and Levi didn't understand why one bit. Eren knew about his mother being sick, but he'd been gone so long he didn't even know she had passed.

It wasn't like Levi was even upset about her passing. That he had come to terms with a long, long time ago. What was eating him now was the one he'd put all of his trust into was ignoring him without even the slightest explanation, and for that he felt ridiculous.

All of this self revelation was thanks to Hanji―dragging him out of bed in his shitty state. No one could comfort him, and he didn't want pity anyway.

From across the outside table, though, Zoe sat with her hands linked and chin down, but her eyes watched him through the top of her glasses. With a gentle sigh, she finally is the one to break the silence, "How are you handling it?"

It. That pissed him off.

Charcoal eyes flicker up from his blank phone before setting it down. Instead he occupied his hand with the plastic cup in front of him, attempting to take a sip of his tea but instead manhandling it, crinkling it just a little too hard until a bead of boiling hot tea trickled over his thumb.

It. Levi could laugh.

He hugs his knees to his chest the tightest this shitty outdoor wire chair would let him. The cafe seemed noisier than usual, even though they were sitting in the humid summer air that no one wanted to be out in. Somehow it felt claustrophobic. The black scarf around his throat felt tight.

"It," he finally says aloud; so that's what they were calling her death now―Levi scoffed more to himself. He tucked his chin underneath the thick fabric and hid the clench of his jaw behind it as he found the right words, "Kenny and I are picking out the coffin tomorrow."

Not that Hanji needed to know, or probably even cared enough. She definitely wasn't the one he wanted to be telling this all to, anyhow.

"I'm sorry, Levi," her eyes slowly fall downcast again, and her fingers idly play with the wire mesh of the table. "Do you want me to go with you tomorrow?"

His inky hair bounces a bit as he shakes his head―he didn't even want to go, the last thing he wanted to do was drag another poor soul along with him. Especially with Kenny's dreaded company.

It's not like he was mad at Hanji. It's just, this was her shitty way of saying goodbye, and she couldn't even put it off for another day or two. She was finally moving out, and all of her things were already in the trucks. She hadn't slept at home last night; leaving the apartment in it's silent darkness, and the marks on the carpets where Hanji's things used to be were nothing but lonely reminders that his life was going downhill fast.

The ravenet seldom cried, but for one of the rarest times in his life, he could feel his eyes burning with hot, fat year old tears that he refused to release. Even now. He tucked his chin deeper into his scarf and closed his eyes tight. The tears simply came and went. Fell down his cheeks and his scarf absorbed it.

That was all he would allow. Enough was enough, and he wiped his face before mending his farewell with Hanji.

Nevertheless she harassed it into his skull that he was always welcome to visit, and anything he needed, she was his girl. That wasn't true anymore. Hanji was his girl all through life, always there with Hanji's famous home remedy of cheap Chinese and beer no matter what went wrong. Now the cruel circle of life had grabbed her right by the ring finger and drug her out of his life.

And just like Erwin and Isabel and Farlan, she would just be another memory, too.

They said their goodbyes with surprising speed. After all of these years, Levi thought it would be more heartfelt, but it seemed the both of them had other things on their mind. Hanji was practically jumping in her seat to begin moving into her new place, and Levi couldn't shake the dreaded emotional cocktail Eren had served him.

Before he left the cafe he questioned Sasha and Connie, and they both denied seeing him anytime in the past week. Even they thought it was unusual, but weren't much help. He spotted a familiar ebony bob from across the cafe, but even Mikasa wouldn't tell him where Eren was. Levi felt as though she was lying, but neverminded it save for remaining on mutual terms.

In desperation, he had ended up a block away from the cafe and at Eren's house. It was late in the evening, and granted Eren's mother was probably asleep or relaxing, but he had little to lose at this point.

When she did answer the door, she only seemed agitated that she had to manuever her wheelchair back and forth into the doorway until she could face him correctly.

"Oh, Levi," she nudged the door to the side, away from her wheelchair and huffed. "I'm sorry, but Eren isn't here."

"I know," he mumbled, saving his voice if he needed to resort to yelling when he catches that damn idiot. "I haven't heard from him in a week, actually."

"That's strange… the last I heard," she furrows her brows and trailed off as if she were trying to remember, and suddenly, her face lights up as she does. "He's been down at Armin's place all week, working on a project."

"A project?"

"It's not something you and I should talk about. I think you should speak to Eren," she answers firmly, and Levi wonders if this is what she is irritated about―if Eren had gotten into some kind of shit. "It means a lot to him, and it means a lot to me, as well."

"With all due respect... what are you talking about?"

"Eren has been working on this for quite a bit, and he specifically asked me not to tell you about this," there was almost a faint smile, but it faded quickly. "I have to get back inside, I have a roast in the oven."

"Right... sorry. Do you know where I can find Armin's house then?"

Still, she seemed hesitant, but ended up typing the address into Levi's phone with the suck of her teeth and a heavy sigh. Levi didn't want to keep her any longer, and thanked her briefly with a quick nod of the head.

The blond's place wasn't far away at all, only about two blocks towards the shop again. Finally, some decent news, but Levi was starting to feel like he was going in circles, until he came upon a small brick house sitting lonely between wild, unkempt lawns. A towering, gloomy tree hung over the house, making his cautious tread towards the front door all the more ominous.

This was the only address matching the one Erens' mother gave him. With short confidence, he approached the front door, and instantly recognized Eren's voice on the other side. A large window was in the front of the home, almost covered by drapes completely, but Levi could make out a dining table and Eren's voice ask, _"Who the hell would that be?"_

As soon as Armin swung the door open, Levi was completely ready to attack, maul, kick, scream. Seeing those blue eyes brought all of his pooling rage back to his ever fastening heartbeat. His blood boiled for answers.

"Oh, shit, uh," Armin squeaked. "Eren, it's Levi."

There was a small clatter and scrape of a chair before Eren was trotting to the front door, his brows knitted in confusion.

"What're you doing here?" The brunet shut the door behind him, before crossing his arms and tucking his hands underneath the large blue cardigan Levi had seen on Armin before. When Levi didn't respond, Eren furrowed his brows. "Hey―are you okay, Levi?"

So Eren was just fine. Just perfectly peachy, and just decided to ignore him without a real reason? Levi felt like he wanted to laugh, but finally those damn tears made a reappearance as the looming fire in his chest turned to ice.

He shook his head, finally revealing his trembling voice, "It's been… It's been a fucking entire week and you just completely fucked off. What the fuck do you mean am I okay?"

"I know, I'm sorry―I've been insanely busy―"

"With a project."

"Yeah. Who told you?"

"Your mother," he says victoriously, as if Eren would suddenly realize the struggle he had put Levi through, and if he didn't, Levi didn't mind adding, "I had to ask your fucking mom where the hell you were just to get a hold of you! I've been texting and calling and you just―fuck! What the fuck, Eren?"

His throat was starting to ache like hell, but seeing jade eyes widen with a mixture of fear and confusing made it feel all the more exciting to finally get his point across. It was up in the air, and he didn't want to take it back.

"A-Armin doesn't have any service out here, I'm sorry, Levi―"

"What is so important? I needed you so fucking bad, Eren," he resumes hollering, and the back of his throat was starting to scratch. That was it, Levi's throat croaked and sent him into a coughing fit.

 _Damn it_ , Levi mentally cursed himself, buckling over. With one hand he pulled his scarf over his mouth, and the other he wrapped his fingers tight around his throat.

"Listen!" Eren shouted. "Stop yelling at me! You're going to hurt yourself, for one, and for two, just let me explain, okay?"

Levi could taste the bitter iron on the back of his tongue and had no choice but to come to an agreement. Silently and reluctantly, he nodded.

"Come inside first, it's hot out here," Eren pulled on Levi's arm, opening the door again and leading Levi inside. Again, the ravenet was pissed but he couldn't disagree with the brunet. The heat wasn't helping his coughing any.

Thankfully after a moment in the air conditioning his symptoms had settled down just a little it and he was able to breathe again. Once Levi was in, his eyes first landed on Armin, sitting at the table in the window. There were notebooks, crumbled balls of paper and pens scattered all over the table. A giant stack of papers stood out in the center of the table.

"Sit down," Eren insisted, pulling a chair out for Levi.

The raven obliged, still holding the back of his hand over his lips. The last thing everyone needed was him coughing blood all over these seemingly important papers. They'd better be fucking important.

"I don't know how to explain this without freaking you out," Eren took his own seat beside Levi, and sighed as he picked up a pencil and tapped the tip annoyingly on the table. With raised brows and a shake of the head, Eren shrugged, and blurted, "But I'm selling the shop."

Levi's features only deepened as he tried to exclaim, but resulted only in more choking. Again, he buried his face into his scarf, and tried to catch his breath.

"Listen, the shop sucks," Eren tittered with a shrug. "We get nothing but tourists who haggle shit down to nothing. I've worked there long enough to get a resume, and with the money we get from the shop we can pay for my mother's' surgery, maybe even some corrective glasses for me, and... the real reason is, I wanted to give you the money you needed for _your_ mother."

Suddenly the air in the room weighed heavy on his shoulders, and it felt like a dark cloud had formed a halo around his head. All this time he wanted to victoriously shove it in Eren's face, and now it just hurt. His heart sank as he searched for the right words.

Levi finally lowered his scarf, trying to speak but the brunet's eyes widened. There was a wet feel on the bottom of his lip that he quickly wiped away, embarrassed it might be dribble. Instead it was blood.

"Levi, you're bleeding!"

"It's fine," he whispers. This was more important. Oh, God, how he waited to finally be able to tell Eren everything, and now this had to happen.

"Armin, can you get some water?"

The blond didn't hesitate to hurry to the kitchen.

"I'm fine. Eren," Levi's throat was killing him. This was going to hurt a hell of a lot more, though. There was no good way to say it, so with a trembling sigh, Levi shook his head and spit it out. "My mother died."

Armin returned with the glass of water just in time to be in earshot, and halted completely. The entire house went silent with dread, and Eren only stuttered nothing out, eyes darting back and forth as if the information needed to simmer and set in his brain.

After a long minute, the brunet slowly got up from his chair, looked down at the books Levi now noticed jotted with pages of math. Slowly, Eren lifted it, laughed shortly and shook his head before his demeanor changed and his facial features sunk with a frown.

"Shit!"

Eren's voice boomed through the silence of the house, startling everything in a mile radius into another, tense silence. Both Armin and Levi jumped a bit in their seats.

"Fuck," the brunet whispers this time, shaking his head as he turns to Levi. The brunet seemed more torn up about it than Levi had, and his voice broke when he muttered, "I fucked up."

Levi was in no position to try and talk Eren down from that thought. Instead, he pushed himself up from his chair and closed the distance between them. He placed his palms on Eren's cheeks and forced the brunet to look at him.

"Eren, it's okay."

"It's not okay. I was so caught up in this shit―I thought I had more time," he says with a whiny undertone. Tears rolled between Levi's fingers, and he tried to wipe them away with his thumbs, but they just kept coming. "I left you all alone… I swear I was just trying to help, Levi. Fuck… I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid, Eren," he whispers so low. "I was wrong to yell at you. I know you were just trying to help."

"It wasn't good enough."

"It _was_ good enough, and if she were alive, it would be great," shaking his head, Levi leveled their eyes once again, making sure he could see his own reflection in Eren's eyes. Voice low and trembling, Levi shook his head. "You did so much to try and help. I love you, Eren. No one has ever done so much for me."

The brunet was silent, so Levi took it on himself to make sure Eren knew.

"I love you," he repeated.

Eren nodded, his chin quivering now as he tried to speak, "I love you, too. I'm so sorry, Levi, I―"

"Eren, my mom didn't want to live," he admitted quickly. "It's no one's fault. She made her decision, and we can't let it drag us down. I appreciate all of this, but it probably wouldn't have changed anything anyway, I swear that to you."

It took minutes of silence for the words to sink in for the both of them. Eventually Eren nodded, pulled Levi into a tight embrace and rested his cheek on top of raven hair.

The silence was relieving; they had both made fools out of themselves tonight, and Levi was thankful that the blood rushing in his ears was silent now. As he held his ear to Eren's chest to listen to his heartbeat instead, he sighed with relief.

The silence was only broken by Armin exclaiming a quiet "oh!"

"W-We... We could remodel the shop." Armin squeaked out quickly. "There will still be enough to mess around with... and we could remodel the shop into something... new."

"What would we even remodel it into?" Eren sniffled, his chin resting on the top of Levi's head as he stared expectantly at the blond.

"We'll brainstorm." Armin answered confidently. "We'll come up―"

"A restaurant," Eren interrupted. "I've always wanted a restaurant. With like… all sorts of foods. German, Australian, Japanese. You name it."

"Wow, Eren, you must have really thought about this for a while," the blond hums.

"When you spend day after day inside of a failing business, you start to brainstorm, I guess," he admits with a laugh.

"I mean," Armin shrugs. "It doesn't sound awful."

"And think of the tourists―even locals will come! We could all run it! Fuck an education, let's make a fucking business! Fuck all of this! Fuck all of this sad bullshit," Eren continued. "I want something good to happen for once!"

Levi couldn't help but to chuckle, attracting the attention of his boyfriend. Before Levi could even open his eyes, the brunet grabbed his face, placing a fat kiss on Levi's lips, not even phased by the dried blood anymore, before pulling him into a bone crushing hug.

The ravenet wondered momentarily what the hell he had gotten himself into.

And yet, he couldn't help but let the excitement radiate onto him.


	14. Butterlips

**Authors Note:**

Forgive me I have sinned

I feel like I spent an entire day on this chapter and it came out crappy. Or it could be that I'm just overthinking it.

Anyway, the next chapter is already a WIP, and I'll be posting it tomorrow. c;

* * *

 **[From] [Hanji]  
** _How're you holding up kiddo?_

 **[To] [Hanji]  
** _Fine. How's married life?_

Levi waited an hour in bed, rolling over from one sunken side of the mattress to the other, and Hanji never replied; he assumed that's how married life is. Sighing after an hour long defeat, and purposely sulking in bed to make himself feel worse, he sat up and leaned his back against the wall.

His stomach was cramping, and today was only going to get worse.

An entire day with Kenny was hell enough, picking out his own mothers' coffin was dreadful in every aspect-but the worst part was that Eren was coming along, too.

It's not Eren's presence that upset Levi, but the fact that he knew Kenny was going to start shit with the kid again, and the last thing Levi needed was to be barred from a funeral home-if there even was such a thing.

Or maybe he was overreacting, like he always did, and this day could go smoothly with no bloodshed.

He neverminded it, and stretched his arms over his head. Throat still sore, he was upset at his lack of ability to yawn, and eventually gave up on trying to get a proper stretch before officially getting out of bed.

Reluctantly, he did, and figuring Eren was still asleep, went about his morning routine without checking his phone.

After a brisk shower, brushing of his teeth and some saltine crackers for breakfast, Levi sighed into the empty apartment. Just for the hell of it he checked Hanji's room. It was still empty, of course. A part of him hoped this was all just some shitty prank, and everyone was gonna come rushing out with giant cameras, slap a pie in his face and piss all over this shitty situation. As he closed Hanji's bedroom door, though, he lingered on the opposite side of the door, and realized this was very real.

There was no way out.

The local news killed a few hours, and helped with the deafening silence, but even the news was depressing him. Another traffic accident, another break-in, more drug rings, sex trafficking. _Good old Miami_ , he figured.

When it got to be too much, Levi picked his phone back up off of the charger, and texted Eren at 9am.

It took about 10 minutes for the brunet to respond that he was on the way.

The morning cartoons took care of the 30 minute gap it took Eren to arrive.

"Hey," Eren quietly greeted with a somber smile, the bags more than obvious under his eyes.

It seemed the excitement they both shared yesterday was sobering up, and reality was crashing down on them. After Eren's parade, Armin had sat the two of them down, and realized Eren would have to sacrifice a treatment to go through with the renovations. Either his eyes, or his mother, and the brunet was instantly dispirited. Levi could only imagine Eren had stayed up all night thinking about it-and he knew it was best they had their distance so Eren could do so. Levi loved Eren, but this was no longer his place to intervene.

"Are you ready to go?" The brunet asked.

Levi simply nodded, but they both knew there was no preparing for this. He already knew Kenny wanted to go the cheapest route, but Levi wasn't going to just let his mother rot in a cardboard box; she deserved better than that, and Levi was willing to fight about it.

The ravenet grabbed his keys, and left hand in hand with Eren, checking the directions that Kenny had sent him to the funeral home. They took a cab, and it was the quietest ride of their lives. No one said a word, especially not the driver when they informed him of the location. Traffic only made matters worse. Everyone had somewhere to be, and this was taking forever. Levi was beginning to wonder if it'd have been faster walking.

Realistically though, the home was 40 minutes away, and walking would have been a nightmare.

An hour and a half later, they had finally arrived.

The home was a large beige and forest green building, with giant golden letters informing them this was in fact Maria's Funeral Home. Complete with tacky red and white signs advertisement.

" _ **50% OFF ON ALL ELDER FUNERALS!**_ "

An offended Levi scoffed at it, as if it was really gonna jump up and defend itself. Wasn't the signs fault.

Shaking his head, he pulled out his phone, and opened the notepad. There was no way in hell he was going to be speaking to anyone since his argument with Eren last night; which he still felt like an absolute tool for. For the sake of Eren though, he tried to put it in the back of his mind.

Shopping for caskets with Kenny and Eren turned out to be more enjoyable than not-for what it was worth. It was a surprise to see that Kenny didn't have an outburst, and Eren kept his composure together even when Levi's uncle decided to jab at them. There was nothing too atrocious that came out of Kenny's mouth, and most of the time Eren spoke for Levi, and Levi couldn't help but to notice that he was becoming good at it. Eren knew which caskets weren't even worth looking at, and dismissed ones with prices too low.

" _Levi doesn't like it,"_ or " _This one is okay."_

" _Levi said her favorite color was purple, so we should look for a purple interior."_

" _This one is too cheap, she deserves something better than that."_

It was stunning. Levi was baffled, not that he had anything that would allow him to voice that right now. Everytime Eren spoke for him, the ravenet could only raise a brow. Usually it's unpleasant when other people speak for him, but Eren could read his expression, and express it easily.

After so long though it felt as though they were going in circles, and getting nowhere near Kenny's approval. After two hours of walking through a selection of thousands of caskets, Kenny had finally given up with an insistent sigh.

"I'm going for a smoke. Just pick one."

Levi sighed as well, and Eren gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder.

"We'll find one."

And eventually, they did. The two of them split up, before Levi finally texted Eren to come see.

It was perfect for his mother; a light beige wood on the outside, and silk purple on the outside.

The only problem was, when the couple went outside to find Kenny, the bastard was nowhere to be found. Even texting and calling was futile, because Kenny had turned his phone off.

Levi wanted to curse, but held it in, save his sore throat.

"I'll pay for it," Eren offered quietly, as they sat defeated on the curb of the parking lot, Levi still with his head between his hands until Eren resumed speaking. Thin brows furrowed, and Levi instantly began shaking his head, and typing as quickly as he could. Eren simply held a hand over Levi's phone. "It wasn't a debate. I have good credit thanks to the shop, and I'll be getting enough back from selling it to pay it off immediately."

The mute still looked irked, with his lips crooked into a frown.

"Besides, you can consider it a downpayment for the apartment, if you really want a reason to accept it." Eren shrugged.

"What?" Levi hissed quietly, and his expression only deepened with confusion.

"I said I'd help you out." Eren resumed. "With rent, I mean. You won't just accept my money, or a pay raise, so I figured… I need a place to stay, since my mom is dating again, and I'm older now…"

Suddenly, Eren realized what he was saying. This wasn't just his friend Levi anymore, this was his boyfriend, and he couldn't just force himself into Levi's apartment.

"I m-mean, shit, unless you don't want to!" The brunet babbles on, now talking with his hands. "I… I was going to ask you before we started dating… now I see how rude it is to ask, since we're dating."

The rambling continued, and it was Eren's turn to sulk his head into his hands.

Levi, however, was smiling before Eren could see, and nibbled his excitement off of his bottom lip before removing both hands from Eren's face.

"Yes." Levi said quietly, nodding.

"Yes?" Eren's brows knit.

Levi nodded again, before laying a gentle hand over Eren's cheek, holding his face still before placing a chaste, lingering kiss on the brunet's forehead.

"You'll let me pay for the coffin?"

Levi still didn't like the idea, but he didn't want to ruin this moment, and he was sure he could beat the money out of Kenny later, anyway. Save for the moment, Levi nodded happily, allowing a small smile to crack, and his chest to swell warmly when Eren grinned.

"You really want me to move in?" Eren titted, and even though Levi nodded, the brunet teased, "I can be messy, you know? Sometimes I hide dishes under my bed."

"I'll kill you," Levi whispers before Eren laughs.

For a few moments they smile together, letting the ease of the moment lead their silence.

"Will we share a bed?" Eren blurts before really thinking, his face goes rosy once he realizes what he's said. "L-Like, I can sleep in Hanji's old room-I don't mind!"

"Whatever you want, Eren."

The brunet's skin went warm; there was no sound in the world more pleasant than hearing Levi say his name.

The only thing that could have interrupted them was Levi's phone chiming, and the ravenet opened it instantly, assuming it could have been Kenny. Instead, it was Hanji.

 **[From] [Hanji]**  
 _Married life… is SO good! We just finished moving aaaaall my junk in! Gettin dinner now I promise ill text u l8r!_

 _Huh_ , Levi thought, _that's… convenient timing._

After waiting all day for her response, Levi could only see it as a sign. He squeezes his phone tightly, rereading the message over and over.

Be it because his mother died and half of his brain felt rotten, or just because he really was falling head over heels for the bright eyed brunet, Everything reminded him of him, and it was an inconvenient feeling.

His thoughts were moving too fast-he was overthinking it.

This wasn't even worth thinking about.

Closing out the text, he writes a message down for Eren.

' _Let's go get a drink to celebrate,'_ he types. ' _I want sake, for my mother.'_

"Okay," Eren smiles gently before standing up and brushing his butt off. Holding a hand out, he helps Levi get to his own feet. "I like the sound of that."

They decided on walking until they found an affordable bar, which was on practically every corner of Miami. The real trick was finding one that wasn't full of absolute idiots trying to club.

And to their luck, there was a small hole in the wall Mexican grill beside a clinic that no one seemed to be going into, so they settled for this one and their 2 for 1 margaritas.

They were seated at a booth in the corner, away from the speakers (by Eren's request, and an arrow had gone through Levi's heart), and about 4 enormous margaritas later, Levi was feeling relatively juiced up, and his throat had loosened enough for him to mutter over the low music.

He ran his thumbs up and down the curve in his glass, nibbling his bottom lip as he put together his words like a puzzle. Inhaling deeply, he finally began the word vomit on his drunk mind.

"I want to get married." Levi blurt.

Poor Eren, who was in mid sip, choked instantly on his drink, and lime juice leaked from his nose before Eren was frantically wiping it up with napkins.

"I didn't mean now," Levi corrects himself. "Sorry."

Eren shakes his head, holding a hand to his heart while he coughs the lodged lump in his throat.

"I'll just talk while you figure that out," Levi snorts, and Eren laughs, at least he thinks Eren laughs. It could be choking. He was glad Eren had to be quiet, though. Sometimes the brat interrupted him, and this was something he needed to say.

"I mean I want to get married. It's a dream of mine." Levi resumes quietly, holding eye contact with the brunet despite Eren being occupied on his spillage. "I might be tipsy."

Eren nods, and Levi takes it almost offensively.

"I feel like you and I have rushed things. Hanji and Moblit were together for years before they even had _sex_ ," Levi shares, his voice getting ever so low as he speaks. "But now they're married. I want that, too… Not _now_ , I swear, but… I think I really have it in for you."

With tissues pressed to his nose, Eren finally returns the cocked head stare Levi is giving him.

"We've rushed everything, even the "L" word," Levi titters, taking a quick sip to keep his throat loose, and maybe to loosen his lips even more. He tries not to think of scaring Eren off, because the kid stayed around for all of this, Levi was sure Eren could handle the truth. "Even moving in together."

Levi added the last part in almost a whisper, and looked away when Eren frowned.

"I really like you, Eren. But to be frank, I haven't even found out your last name." Levi winces at his own words, feeling incredibly foolish now. There had to be some point in their life that Levi had heard it, but he never memorized it.

"Jaeger." Eren quips, a grin spreading, and he finally finishes cleaning up his mess. "Eren Jaeger. Now you know who to make the proposal out to."

"No," Levi snorts, taking another sip. At this point he's fully aware that he's drunk, and Eren was still working on his first drink, with the other one still full at the side. Figuring he might as well finish his point, Levi sighs. "I just… I like us. We're good. I've never met anyone so good."

Eren extends his hands, and places his gently over Levi's.

They're sticky as hell.

"I like us, too… and-yeah, we _are_ moving fast… _very_ fast. But… I _like_ it," Eren shrugs. "We would probably still be moving in together, even if we weren't together. You would still be working with me, and… really... the only difference would be that we weren't honest with each other.

"And.. you've done a lot for me. I'd still be messed up with Jean, and thanks to you, I've been thinking how to be honest with Marco. I wouldn't have even thought about selling the shop… and there would be no remodeling. I might even be able to get corrective glasses, now, and it's all thanks to you."

Levi smiled for a moment.

"I don't know where we're going, Jaeger." He shrugs, and hopes he pronounced it right. "But I am glad to do it with you."

"I am too… _Ackerman_." Eren smirks. "And… if you want, we can start slowing down."

Levi took another sip of his drink, finishing it.

Before either of them knew it, they had lost count of drinks. There were 9 glasses on the table, which meant they were missing one, but too busy cracking up about where it could have possibly gone. Eren was a messy drunk, spilling this, knocking that over, laughing far too loud. Levi was moderately collected, but scolded himself mentally numerous times for thinking with his dick.

Levi tried to blame Eren-because who the hell makes eye contact while licking the salt sensually off of their glass?

No, Eren was definitely making bedroom eyes from across the booth, but Levi kept reminding himself that they literally just talked about this.

 _Literally…_

 _Just…_

 _Ordered a cab…_

 _Giggling all the way to the car._

 _Falling into the backseats._

 _Literally._

 _Just._

Eren was watching him from underneath his lashes, his back to the right side door, with his feet in Levi's lap-and Levi swore the brat was bumping his hard on with his calf on purpose.

Why else was Eren looking at him like that, with his index finger in his mouth, smiling innocently.

Levi wanted to slap himself.

 _Because he's drunk_ , Levi reminded himself, _and_ _ **so. are. you.**_

 _Literally._

 _Just._

 _Talked…_

 _Don't ruin this._

Eren had caught Levi off gaurd when the brunet kicked off his shoes, and dug his toes gently into Levi's erection; the ravenet's thoughts went out of the window with the nastiest, honieyed moan he's ever heard-especially out of his _own_ damn mouth. Holding Eren's foot in place didn't help, the shitty brat just used his other one, and giggled when Levi tried restraining Eren's damn feet.

 _I'm going to ruin this._

Hooded silver eyes met with coy emerald, and the cab came to a stop in front of The Smiling Titan.

 _Damn it, Jaeger, I'm going to ruin this so good._


	15. Curvy Hips and Sugar Lips

**Authors Note:**

I had to go through a haitus to rewrite a few things on this fic. I'm not done, but I hate to keep you guys waiting.

Anywho, enjoy!

* * *

 _Hook up with your boss, check._

 _Make out in the back of a cab, check._

 _Public indecency... check, and check._

Levi tucked his mental notepad back into the correct filing cabinet in his brain, marked in bold ' _shit I probably shouldn't do, but it's done, and fuck it'_ , and with the way things were going, sex in a public place would soon be checked off as well. It didn't matter very much, because Eren's mouth was hot on his, and warm hands wondered curiously below his belt. There was no time for thinking.

Propped up on the counter, Levi had his legs wrapped tight around Eren's hips and his heels digging into the small of his back. Even though his shirt had been disposed, he wishes these pants would come off already; they were tight and _holy shit, had clothes always been this uncomfortable?_

Even if Eren had been more experienced than him, he was still clumsy, and it couldn't be blamed on the alcohol as they had both began sobering up. There was still a pleasant fuzziness in the back of his head, but nothing could have prepared him for what he was going to have to tell Eren.

Just as those _spectacular_ hands began groping between his thighs and plump lips suckled at the crook of his neck, Levi sucked in a deep breath through his teeth, reluctantly spitting it out. Eren was gentle with avoiding Levi's scar, taking extra caution as he explored the sensitive skin.

Levi didn't want to admit this to anyone, but with a pouted growl in the back of his throat, he spits it out.

"I've never done this before," he says so low, he almost hopes Eren doesn't hear him.

As fate will have it, though, he did, and he only backs away slowly before freezing. When their eyes meet, Levi looks away quickly, feeling the heat rise up to his ears now as he notices the few people walking past the shop. Any minute, someone could just look right in here.

"Wait," the brunet whispers, a coy smile lifting his lips. "You're... are you telling me you're…"

"Yeah, a virgin." Levi snaps. "Don't make it weird."

"Why would I be weird?" The brunet returns to Levi's throat slowly, a low laugh vibrating against the sensitive skin underneath his jawline. "I'm honored."

"I'm a 21 year old virgin," he sulks quietly, suddenly aware his hands were idly rested on the back of Eren's neck; he wasn't quite sure what to do with them. "It's not a trophy of any sorts."

"You're giving me something special," the brunet argues sweetly, scraping his teeth lightly against Levi's jawline, before trailing his tongue up his chin, finding the ravenet's lips again. Eren's lips never meet his much to Levi's disappointment; they hover teasingly as Eren whispers, "Are you sure you want to do this? Like, here, or… you know, with me."

"Yeah," he returned without hesitation, wondering what the hell happened to slowing down for a split second before throwing that dumb idea out of the window. Swallowing thickly, he nods, confirming a second time, "I... love you."

The emerald eyes on him softed, the brunet's shitty smirk replaced with a gentle smile that was soon finding Levi's lips. Eren's idle hands slid around the ravenet's waist, pulling him off of the counter only to press him hard against it. It was now that Levi could feel just how hard Eren was, and with that knowledge, he felt his own groin begin to heat up again.

Cautiously, Levi allowed his own hands to explore underneath the brunet's shirt, fingers dancing lightly on the small of his back, trailing up his spine ever so slowly. Eren's skin was warm and soft, and he felt like he could play underneath his clothes for hours if Eren would allow him. Trailing his fingers around the brunet's rib cage, he found a delightful laughter bubble between their kisses, and he continued to abuse it.

" _Stop it_ ," Eren whines cutely, giggling as Levi did it once more. "I'm ticklish."

"I see that," Levi tries to stifle his smile as Eren pouts some more. "I'll stop when you can make me stop."

Gentle fingers curled around his throat, taking him with surprise; certainly not an unwelcome one. Emerald eyes observed him for a moment, as if he were making sure it was okay. When a complaint never came, Eren hovered his lips over Levi's teasingly, his free hand trailing up the ravenet's thigh and squeezing.

Their noses brushed together, but each time Levi tried to kiss the brunet, his hand would squeeze his throat, keeping him back. All the while the brunet fumbled with the button of Levi's jeans, hand around his throat slipped down to his hips, lifting him up again with a smirk and helping him back onto the desk.

For now, Levi let the brunet take the lead, just so he could figure out just how far this was going to go. Eren's hands returned to his chest, tracing his collarbones and using the pad of his thumb to graze his nipples. With a smirk, Eren had mercy on the poor ravenet, wiggling and whimpering underneath every touch. With his hands flat on Levi's chest, he begins pushing him back slowly.

Resting his head on the desk, an immediate relief washes over him when Eren finally unbuttons his jeans and helps the ravenet in tugging them off. When the fabric hits the floor, Levi lifts himself up with his elbows, watching curiously as Eren begins near his knee, trailing open mouthed kisses up his inner thigh. Even the gentlest of touches were driving him wild, and his skin heated everywhere the brunet touched. Even with his little knowledge of sex, he had no idea what Eren was going to do next, and it was enticing to watch it unfold.

Of course, he did have a vague idea when Eren palmed his erection, hooking his fingertips underneath the hem of his boxers eagerly. Only when they were disposed of did Levi realize how exposed he was, and Eren's bright eyes were darker than usual as he looked up at the ravenet.

"Fuck, Levi, how are you still a virgin?" He marvels, his breath hot against the head of his shaft. Gently, his fingertips brushed down his erection and his tongue lapped teasingly against the slit of his cock. Muted moans hid behind Levi's lips, but his face was inhumanely hot as Eren's eyes met his again. "I want to make you scream, Levi… even if you can't."

If it were under any other condition, he'd probably get offended by that. With those dangerous eyes on him and soft fingers curling around his cock, though, he let it slide, and nodded before his head fell back against the desk. Just one pump had Levi hissing through his teeth, and two already had him precoming, pointed out by Eren with a quiet giggle. When a warm tongue circled the head of his cock, he sucked in a deep breath. His legs were feeling numb, but every idle touch Eren made with his free hand felt hot on his skin.

"Keep your legs open." The brunet mumbles.

Levi hadn't realized his knees were drawing closer together, but Eren had a hand flat on his inner thigh and Levi allowed him to push them open again, welcoming him once again. He really tried to stay aware of himself, but when Eren's teasing tongue had turned into his mouth around his cock, and his head dipping lower and lower, taking inch by inch, he felt like he'd turned to jello and melted.

Eren was going to have enough material to last him years with the long, drown out whines coming from Levi's lips, cut off with hitched breath every so often when the brunet took in his entire length, his nose pressing to his groin.

He was incredible; Levi didn't know how to keep up with him. It didn't take long for the pool of heat in his lower stomach to spread through his groin, and without much of a warning he reluctantly finished.

Whether or not Eren was expected it, Levi had no idea. When he finally opened his eyes, Eren's tongue was covered in his come, dripping back onto his cock messily.

Levi watched as Eren swallowed the last little bit that lingered on his tongue and licked his lips, his cock twitching despite just coming.

"That's not very nice," the brunet pouts, pumping Levi's cock once. "I wasn't done."

"Mm... me neither," the ravenet retorts, bucking his hips off of the desk, still desperate for some kind of friction. It felt like he hadn't even came, and seeing Eren still playing with him only kept the heat boiling.

A moment of silent realization dawns over the gaping brunet before he smirks.

"You really are impressive," the brunet quips despite his cheeks reddening again. Quietly, he asks, "How do you want me?"

"I don't know. I just want to see you."

It took only a minute of thinking and devilish glances around the shop, all the while his fist twisted around the head of Levi's cock, keeping him hard until the brunet comes up with an idea. Levi let's the brunet blindly pull him along, and the closer they get to the windows, the more his heart begins to race. Even if Eren did settle at the corner window covered with blinds, he felt like everyone outside could see inside.

Most of that worry disappeared when Eren's lips found his. As their tongues prodded again, exploring cautiously and nervously, Eren led his hands to his hips, using Levi's hands to push his jeans off of his hips.

Eren pulls away for a moment, his lips curling devilishly.

"As much as I'd love to keep teasing you, we don't have any lube, and unless you can come a third time, we should probably hurry."

Levi clicks his tongue irately, but doesn't disagree when Eren wiggles his hips, letting his jeans fall to his knees before sitting himself pretty on the windowsill. Without overthinking it, the ravenet closes the distance between them again, pulling Eren's jeans off of his ankles eagerly before disposing of his boxers.

The brunet spreads his legs, welcoming Levi between them. To Levi's surprise, Eren wets his palm with his tongue, returning attention to the ravenet's cock, wetting it again before helping guide Levi.

"Wait, shouldn't you… prepare?"

"Levi, I'm 18," the brunet scoffs matter of factly, pumping Levi's cock and drawing the ravenet forward. The tip of his cock presses against inhumanly warm skin. "I'm really flattered you think I'm such a modest child, but I promise you, I don't need to prepare."

With that, Eren leaves the ravenet no room to argue. His heels dig into Levi's lower back, drawing him closer, still guiding his cock for him. Silver watches emerald carefully, and thin brows narrow as he feels himself pressing inside of Eren, teasingly slow until the head of his cock is practically sucked in.

"Ngh... shit," Eren groans, finally removing his hand and balancing himself on the windowsill. The ravenet stiffens, watching Eren's expression carefully as he wraps his arms tight around the brunet, resting his hands on curvy hips. Peaking one eye open, he assures Levi gently, "Keep going."

"Are you sure?"

"Mmhm," not that he had a choice, what with Eren's legs wrapping tight around him, practically forcing him deeper. With every inch he groaned into chocolate hair, pressing his forehead against Eren's and finally cooperating. Pushing his hips forward, he finds himself deep inside of the brunet, overwhelmed with the electricity ecstasy shooting through his groin. Through a trembling whimper, Eren hides his lips behind his knuckle, asking cutely, "Does it feel good?"

" _Fuck_ ," the brunet was trying to kill him. With eyes squeezed tight, he tries to focus more on his trembling legs not falling out from underneath him. When he's certain he can hold himself up, he rolls his hips, grinding himself deep inside of the brunet and enjoying every last harmonized whine that drips from Eren's dirty lips.

"Fu―m- _more_ ," the brunet's breath hitched as he retreated his legs, and instead propped his heels onto the windowsill, spreading his legs completely open for Levi. With silent acknowledgement, he finally pulls away, watching as his dick slides out of the brunet slowly. That feeling struck through him again, earning a content groan in the back of his throat before he pressed his hips forward again.

Once the two of them were able to find a steady rhythm, the outside world had drowned out, masked by Levi's hot breathes against the crook of Eren's shoulder, and the brunet's cries of pleasure, heightened and uncaring of who could hear them through the thin walls.

"Harder! Y-You can be rougher than that," Eren whines, a desperate glimmer in his eyes struggling to stay open. And here Levi already thought he was being rough enough. To his surprise, though, Eren found one of his hands, bringing it up to his throat. Levi's hips faltered for a bit, only to be reanimated when Eren mewls, "I won't break."

 _As you wish_ , Levi thought, cautious as he curled his fingers around Eren's throat, using that grip to hold the brunet against the window. Quicker and deeper he bucked his hips. Eren's cries were slightly muted now, more hoarse and desperate as his hands clung to Levi's arm. Every so often he would let go, allowing the brunet to relevel himself, and instead gripped to the brunet's shoulder. Eren had started to slip from the sill, only making his thrusts that much deeper as Eren's ass bounced against his hips.

"I-I'm… gonna come!"

That's all Levi needed to hear; the warmth in his groin was seething. With an affirmative growl in the back of his throat, he finds Eren's lips, returning his hand to the brunet's throat, squeezing lightly as their tongues met again for a sloppy kiss. Saliva dribbled down his chin as he retreated close, only enough to watch his cock sliding in and out. The hand that wasn't digging its nails into Levi's arm was pumping his neglected cock.

"C-Coming…" Eren whines.

His knees tighten around Levi's hips, restraining him from anything more than deep, shallow thrusts. When the brunet releases, it's hard and loud, crying out so intensely he's certain the people walking on the streets outside can hear it. Nails dig deep into Levi's back, trailing all the way down his spine. All over his chest and Eren's stomach he comes hotly, giving Levi the last little push he needed to bury himself deep. Using the crook of Eren's shoulder he mutes his own groan, biting down on the sensitive skin as he drives his hips upwards, finding the perfect spot to release inside of his lover.

Levi lets go of Eren's throat and replaces his teeth with a kiss, holding himself up just barely with the windowsill as he tries to catch his breath.

"Fuck," Eren pants, draping his arms over Levi's shoulders. He buries his nose into the crook of his neck and laughs quietly. "Sorry… that probably wasn't what you expected your first time to be like."

"S'okay," the exhausted ravenet mumbles, wincing as he pulls out of the brunet, allowing him to slide off of the windowsill. He's quick to steady the brunet when he stumbles, and reassuringly, the ravenet places a chaste kiss to his lips before pressing their foreheads together. "It was even better."

"Right back at you," the brunet smiles.

As sweet as this conversation was, Levi was feeling nothing but sticky and sweaty. WIth a scowl, he pulls away, observing the cum on his stomach and groin.

"Does this place have a shower?"

"Nah," Eren sighs. "But we could… always go home."

"In this heat? I'd rather bathe in the bathroom sink."

"I was trying to be sweet, you jerk," he smiles, shoving Levi's shoulder lightly. "If you're still up for the idea of me moving in with you."

"Do you expect me to retract everything after fucking you or something?"

The words leave his mouth before he even has time to think about it; of course Eren would, what with how Jean had treated him. Eren's smile falters, twitching until it falls and his eyes darken sadly.

"Hey, I'm kidding," Levi hums, lifting the brunet's chin. Sucking up his pride and disgust, he smiles softly. "Let's go home, to our home."

He could only hope the smile that Eren gave him wasn't completely forced.


	16. Watercolor Eyes

Waking up the morning after was rougher than Levi thought it would be. With a groan, he felt the bed for his brunet, disappointed when he found it empty. After sulking for a moment and sucking up the last bit of heat underneath the blankets he reluctantly rolls out of bed to begin his search, all the while mentally cursing himself for how sore his hips and legs were now. Even the spots where Eren's nails dug into his skin stung now.

Checking his phone, there's nothing from Eren, and the brunet's phone had been stacked on top of his. Usually he'd go to the bathroom to brush his teeth and shower, but right now he wondered where Eren had gone.

That question was answered quickly once he drifted into the living room; he saw the brunet sitting at the dining table, staring blankly at the floor, absolutely motionless to the core.

"Eren?" He asks gently, careful in case the brunet is merely sleepwalking. What a terrible trait that would be for the both of them. When jade eyes don't look up at him he becomes slightly worried. Taking another step closer, he can see remnants of tears staining his cheeks. "Eren, are you… okay?"

Obviously, he wasn't, but like hell Levi knew what else to say.

"I… I can't find my phone," comes a brittle voice.

"It's in the bedroom," he fretted quietly. With brows furrowed, he takes another step closer. "Are you okay? Are you sleepwalking or something?"

Hanji was a damn sleepwalker, he already learned his lesson. There was no such thing as too careful.

"I wish I were," his voice trembles as he speaks. Levi almost can't understand him, he's speaking so muted and mumbled; he has no choice but to take another step closer. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't want you to see me like this. I didn't want you to know."

"It's okay, everyone cries," the ravenet offers gently, finally closing the distance between them when he's certain the brunet won't maul his face off. Squatting to eye level he reaches up to wipe away a tear. The brunet flinches, but his eyes still never meet his. "Eren, what happened?"

"I… didn't want you to know," he whispers again, one of his hands extending slowly, motions jittery until he finds Levi's shoulder. Thin brows furrow as a wry laugh escapes Eren's lips, but it doesn't seem to be out of amusement. "Oh, man, this really does suck."

"I'm confused, Eren. I need you to talk to me," admittedly, he was growing impatient with how sore his throat was becoming. Bringing a hand to Eren's cheek for a quick pinch, he stands back up and clears his throat. Eren is still staring forward, eyes blanker than ever. "Hey, look at me."

"I can't."

"Why not?" Levi sighs, desperately wishing for a cold glass of water right about now.

"I… just… didn't think it would happen like this..." Eren's hands paw at the ravenet's shirt weakly, before trailing down his outer thigh, resting there. "I can't… I can't see, Levi."

Still confused, the ravenet laughs shortly and shakes his head, "What do you mean? Do you need glasses or something?"

"No… I... can't see," he repeats as tears begin forming on his bottom lashes. With a sob, Eren pushes himself forward, burying his face against Levi's stomach, his wails muffled. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you!"

"I-I'm still so confused, Eren."

"I think I went blind!" Eren shouts, muffled with his face buried in Levi's shirt. His nails dig into Levi's hips as his fingers curl into a fist, and he sucks in deep breaths repeatedly, a few words slip out here and there but Levi can't understand him.

A few more blubbering sobs later, Eren pulls away to catch his breath, sucking in deep breaths as he speaks, obviously holding back his tears with how strained and nasally his voice is, "I have a condition. I-I didn't tell you, because I t-thought you wouldn't want to be with me."

Dumbfounded, the ravenet doesn't say anything as Eren coughs a few more sobs, and wipes his face quickly.

"T-The doctors said I'll go blind, but I didn't think it would be like this!" Eren wails, his breathing turning erratic and hysterical. "I t-thought everything would be blurry or something, but it's all black, Levi! I can't see anything!"

"Hey... calm down," the ravenet squats again, cupping Eren's face with his own trembling hands. As he's wiping away the tears, he observes the motionless orbs with thin brows furrowed, not willing to admit to himself that the spark in his chest is seething anger. "Jesus Christ, Eren. Why _wouldn't_ you―" he growls, frustrated at the defeated look that wrinkles Eren's forehead. " _Nevermind_. Should we get you to a doctor?"

"Y-Yes," he stammers. "I wanted to find my phone to call Armin, but I… I―I got turned around and I didn't want to wake you up, so I just… waited."

"God, how long have you been awake?"

"I don't know," he suddenly wails again, finding both of Levi's shoulders and clenching the fabric there. "I'm sorry, Levi, I'm so sorry!

"It's okay," at least, he thinks so. It pains him to see Eren such a mess. Combing Eren's bangs back, he places a chaste kiss to his forehead. "I'm going to go get your phone, okay? I'll call Mikasa."

With a quiet nod followed by sniffles, Levi left Eren, promising twice he'll be right back. He tried not to let the twinge of anger in his chest consume him as he found the brunet's phone and scrolled through the contacts for Mikasa and Armin.

First, he called Mikasa, informing her of the news; she didn't seem surprised, but more-so pissed off. He reluctantly gave her his address. Then Armin, who was probably more of a mess than Eren when he heard. Levi assured him Mikasa was on the way to get him, and then ended the call in a coughing fit.

His throat was killing him, probably from all of the noises he'd made last night. Only when he could suck in a breath without choking on it did he return to the living room.

"Armin and Mikasa are on the way, okay?"

"God, Mikasa…" he laughs shortly. "She's going to be pissed when she finds out."

"She didn't seem surprised," Levi says. "She does know, right?"

"About my eyesight? Yeah, she knows," he says with a smile. "About us fucking? No."

"Oh, right," silver eyes observe the love bites on Eren's neck and shoulders. Even if he put a turtleneck shirt on, they would still be visible. "I think your eyesight will be more important than whose dick is up your ass currently."

With a giggle, Eren agrees, but Levi can't find it in him to laugh right now. Seeing his eyes so motionless and sunken, his heart breaks. There's so many questions he wants to ask, but Eren obviously isn't in the right mind to talk about these things.

"Are you mad at me?" Comes a brittle voice, ready to break at any second.

"No," he doesn't hesitate to answer, even if he was feeling some kind of spite for the brunet keeping secrets like this. With a sigh, he kneels down again, crossing his arms on the brunet's knees and rests his head there. Eren's hand inches closer in jerking movements, until it's patting ebony hair cautiously. When the brunet begins combing his fingers through his hair, Levi asks, "How many people knew about this?"

"Not many," he says. "I mean… everyone knew, sort of. No one really took it seriously besides Mikasa and Armin. Everyone else thought I was joking, or making it up… so I kind of just stopped telling anyone."

"I see."

With a sigh, he closes his eyes, swallowing against the soreness in his throat. So many things ran through his head, he didn't know where to start or how to keep up.

It reminded him of the first time he tried to speak after his surgery. Nothing had came out besides blood and broken whimpers, and Levi would never wish that kind of frustration on anyone; he couldn't even begin to imagine how scared Eren must be right now.

Just as he was separating his lips to speak again, there was a loud knock at the door; no doubt Eren's friends. Quickly, he got up and crossed the room, throwing the door open to find the fuming ravenette with wide eyes, immediately shouting, "Where is he?"

Before he can even answer, she's forcing her way inside, finding him immediately with a pained gasp. Armin stands idly in the doorway, waiting to be invited inside, and when Levi does, his steps are slow and worried, as if he doesn't _want_ to see it, but reluctantly finds Eren.

Shutting the door behind them, Levi gives them all some distance, standing a few feet away with his arms crossed.

"Eren, you can't see?" Mikasa sits herself in front of Eren, taking his heads. When the brunet shakes her head, she dips her forehead down to Eren's knees, inhaling deeply. Levi assumes it must be emotional for her, too, but she doesn't let it show as she lifts her head back up. For a moment she seems sympathetic, until her eyes lock with the swollen skin on Eren's throat. Her eyes dull, and her jaw visibly tightens. "We're taking you to the doctors, come on."

Eren doesn't much have a choice; Mikasa is already yanking him up to his feet, linking her arm through his and pulling him towards the door. A surge of panic goes through Levi as he wonders if he should insist following or stay put, only to be surprised when Eren fights against her hold and stammers, "W-Wait!"

"What?" She hisses. "We need to go now."

"I want Levi to walk me," his glossy eyes are motionless, but his hands extend skittishly around him in jerking motions, as if he were searching for the ravenet, provoking a painful twist of Levi's heart.

"He's not even dressed," she scowls, now eying Levi up and down. "We don't have time for this."

"Why is that important?" The brunet shudders in another sob, before palming both of his eyes irately. "L-Levi, please."

"Okay," the ravenet interrupts whatever Mikasa was opening her mouth for. Upon hearing Levi, Eren's hands search in that general direction, and Levi doesn't waste anymore time closing the distance between them and holding his hand.

Mikasa doesn't seem pleased one bit, but with a muted growl in the back of her throat, she detaches herself from Eren and leaves the apartment. Armin takes Eren's free hand instead, and the two of them lead him outside carefully and slowly. The ravenet only takes a moment to slip some shoes on, and then they're gone.

The car ride was the worst part, especially with Eren arguing he wanted to sit in the back with Levi; Mikasa insisted he sat up front, and Levi wasn't sure he would be able to intervene again. Instead, he gently reassured Eren it was okay, even if it pissed him off, too, he sat in the back with Armin.

The truck turns over, and Mikasa angrily shifts gears before they're on their merry way.

"How did this happen?" Mikasa asks once rolling to a red light. "The effects were supposed to come gradually, not all at once. Did you hit your head? Did you fall? You didn't sleep on your stomach, did you?"

"No, no, and no," the brunet defends himself, but stiffens after a moment, along with Levi. If they could make eye contact, the ravenet was certain they would share a _look_. Clearing his throat, Eren resumes quietly, "I… I don't know how this happened."

The ravenet curses himself internally, chewing the inside of his mouth as he watched out of the window.

"Did you drink?" Armin asks, leaning towards the front seat.

"Levi and I went out for drinks… but it wasn't that many," he admits, hanging his head; Levi is certain the pieces are falling together for him, too.

"You _went out_ for drinks? You're only 18. Did Levi order for you?" The ravenette hisses, glancing into the rearview mirror before driving again. "That's illegal, you know. If you were caught you would be arrested. You shouldn't be drinking so much, anyway."

"Mikasa," the blond whines, his eyes going wide. "This isn't important right now."

"Something triggered this is all I'm saying," she finalizes. "I suppose the doctor will just have to tell us if you're not going to, Eren."

"Guess so."

The marks on Eren's throat weren't a secret; he wonders if Mikasa suspects it, too. Like hell Levi was going to bring it up, and Eren didn't seem keen on that idea, either, so he remained silent, as did the rest of them.

Ten minutes were up quick, though, as Mikasa sped through every yellow light. It was a family doctor Levi had never heard of, and the ravenet could only hold Eren's hand as they walked inside. Mikasa signed Eren in, and they took their seats in silence.

Eren's fingers curled tight around his, and Levi did his best to reassure him with gentle touches. With Mikasa sitting beside him, though, he was trying his best not to start anymore discourse. It took 20 minutes, but finally Eren's name was called.

"I'll come with you," Mikasa insists, standing and taking Eren by the hand.

"N-No, I'd rather go alone," he stammers, but stands up with her.

"That's nonsense, Eren, you can't see," she says. "How will you walk?"

"I…" he trails off, the hand Levi had let go of had balled into a fist at his side. After a few more stutters and stammers, he finally exclaims, "Levi can come with me!"

"Levi isn't your _family_ ," she snears, pulling on his hand again. "Come on, we really don't have time for this, Eren."

This time Eren had no room for rebuttal, and before he could form a sentence Mikasa was dragging him towards the impatient nurse. When they disappeared behind the door, the anxiety set in deep, and Levi instantly began shaking his knee.

If this were his fault, he'd never forgive himself. Chewing the inside of his mouth raw, he resorting to gnawing on his thumb nail, silver eyes never leaving that door.

Armin sat quietly, a seat between them, and the ravenet was far too zoned out to pay attention to whatever he was saying. Only when the blond plopped down in the empty seat next to him did he snap out of it and look over to meet furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.

"What did you say?"

"I asked if you're okay," the blond repeats quietly.

"I'm fine."

"Okay," he sighs, and Levi appreciates him not pushing it as he sits forward in his seat, linking his hands in his lap. With the silence back, he returns to shaking his knee, watching the door, mentally melting, until Armin opens his mouth again. "Is that a scar on your neck?"

Silver eyes narrow as they meet blue, and the blond stiffens on contact.

"S-Sorry! I saw it underneath your scarf when you came over… I didn't want to say anything, it's probably rude to ask―"

"It _is_ rude to ask," he interrupts sourly.

"Right… sorry," he smiles weakly, looking away again. "I was just trying to take your mind off of Eren."

The ravenet sighs, shaking his head as he combs his bangs back. All of this had him on edge. Eren could be blind permanently now, and it could be because he was dumb enough to listen to the brunet and choke him. Levi scoffs, but not at Armin more-so himself.

This was going to kill him, and he had to do something before he slipped into his thoughts.

With a thick swallow, he rests his head on the back of the seat and sighs again, breathing out, "Fine."

Lifting his head again, he finds Armin was on his phone, but shuts it off immediately when their eyes meet.

"Huh?"

"It is a scar, yeah. I got it during a car accident. Eren hasn't told you this?"

"Not one bit," he re-adjusts to face Levi, crossing his legs, a little too excited when he says, "Please, tell me."

This kid would probably get along with Hanji.

"A shard of glass went through my neck," he informs him quietly, pressing his fingertips against the numb tissue underneath his jawline. "I wasn't able to speak for a while, it had severed my vocal chords, but once they healed it left me sort of… disabled."

Passionately did he hate using that word; it made others look down on him, but Armin did all but that, much to his surprise.

"How so?" The blond asks, his eyes wide with curiosity, a refreshing look. Most people were disgusted with his story, but Armin seemed to overflow with pure curiosity.

"Some days I wake up and I can't speak at all. Sometimes I can speak, but it sounds and feels like I'm being choked," he explains, not sure why he's so talkative anymore. "Other days are good. I can sing, yell, do whatever the hell I want… but those days are rare anymore."

"Your vocal chords… they're not healed then?"

"Yeah, they're still damaged. I still can't eat much, and I choke on my own spit a lot," he laughs, but it's not out of amusement. Tightening the grasp around his throat, he swallows the lump in his throat as he resumes, "I never spoke this much before, either, but Eren likes it when I do… so I've been pushing myself."

"Won't that make it worse?"

Levi nods.

"I could lose my voice permanently."

"That doesn't sound like it would be good for you or Eren," the blond murmurs sadly, finally looking away. "Eren's doctor says he may go permanently blind before he even reaches 25."

A wave of pain surges through his chest.

"He never told me that."

"I can see why he wouldn't," he resumes, clarifying for the sake of the worried look wrinkling Levi's forehead. "If you knew about him going blind, and he knew about you going mute… what hope is there, really?"

That was a horrible realization he didn't want to think about; their relationship was doomed to fail from the very start, and yet there was a reason Eren hadn't told him. To protect their relationship.

"Maybe." Is all he can say.

"I'm sorry. For everything," Armin laments; Levi can feel his gloomy eyes on him, but refuses to look away from the crack in the floor he was distracting himself with. "I'm sorry about your mom."

That was the short straw of the bundle, and it felt like someone had sucker punched Levi in the gut. The sadness looming around in his chest was becoming unbearable.

"I used to hate you for a while there, if we're being honest," the blond chuckles, oblivious to the hitch in Levi's breathing. "When Eren left Jean I was excited; I thought I would finally have a chance to ask him out."

The ravenet doesn't speak, doesn't acknowledge him, but he hears it.

"Sorry, no offense, I know Eren is happy with you!" He grins, waving his hand dismissively. "I kept it secret since we were kids. It feels good to just talk about it, though."

"I see," Levi hums.

Eren could have a happy relationship with someone he'd known all his life, and he chose Levi.

The ravenet didn't understand why, and he didn't want to anymore. Sucking in a deep breath, he thinks of excusing himself, but his eyes were beginning to burn, and all he wanted was to desperately be alone.

Silently, he gets up from his seat, ignoring the blond asking, "Where are you going?"

The ravenet shoved his fists into his pockets, feeling his phone smooth on his palm. It's like his feet were on autopilot as he left the building, stepping into the cool drizzle that had grayed the sky. Only when he'd got on the sidewalk and turned the corner did he feel private enough to blink hard, letting the warm tears go before wiping them away irately.

Eren was young, far too young for him, and Armin was right; he had his whole life ahead of him, and if the two of them were together it would only fail. They were the farthest thing from a match made in heaven.

All they would do is waste one anothers time.

Armin was better for Eren.

And yet, his heart felt like it was breaking; he shouldn't have gotten so close.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he winces as the brunet's smiling face lights up on his screen. Before he can react to it, he clicks on his contacts and watches his phone as he walks down the empty neighborhood streets, unsure of where he's going or even where he is. Passing through houses with no one in sight; why would they come out in this weather?

The rain was only getting heavier and he had to constantly wipe his phone clear.

Scrolling frantically through his contacts, he finds Hanji's name, almost clicking on it but stopping last second. She was busy with her own life, and Levi didn't want to bring her down.

Isabel's name was under hers; he hovered his thumb over it.

For a long while he stared at the name, before shaking his head and sighing. The last thing she needed was more of his shit, and Farlan was right, he came with a lot of it.

After everything Eren had given him, the pain in his chest felt foreign, even though it was all too familiar. At the least, his mother would have been there, or he could go home to Hanji. Now, though, he had to understand the situation at hand, even if it hurt.

He was alone again, and it was for the best.


End file.
